This Thing Of Darkness
by TrickstersImp
Summary: One lone man with a vendetta is hard enough. When the same man comes back, with two sons, and a minature army, it's almost impossible. If it's possible though, the Oliver's will find a way, with quite a bit of help of course. Bade/Tandre/Cabbie futurefic.
1. Chapter 1

**Okay, I think I'll just warn you here, this is a sequel to What's In A Name which is a purely Bade fanfiction (by, yep you guessed it, CANON 24 aka me)... I think this works on its own as well, but you might want to read WIAN first to understand some things. And pairings are Bade mostly with Tandre and Cabbie and some minor Trinjiin**

_I thought I was one step ahead of the game._

_**Amber's POV**_

I combed down my black hair, the hair my dad had been complimented on again and again. I wasn't sure if it was good thing on not, to have a man's hair, even if it was nice hair. And my friends had confirmed that it was nice hair. We were all getting ready for the kickback tonight; apparently they had been happening since my mom and dad were at school at HA twenty years ago. It was funny how I had ended up friends with the kids of their friends, well everybody except Josh, he's mom was nice, but our parents had only met her once _we _started to become friends.. They had all been sorted in couples perfectly. My dad always tells this story of how my mom entered the school and all the boys turned to look at her. He always says he fell in love with mom then, at first sight, I'm not really sure if I believe him. I know Madi doesn't.

Slowly I began to look around the room, looking them over, there was Libby Valentine, every inch like her mother searching through the clothes, desperate to find that perfect pink dress, that made her eyes just 'pop'! Lia and Meg, were a bit more relaxed in the corner, Andre and Tori had decided to lift the kid's dress code, the trusted them to look after themselves. It wasn't as if they could have inforced it anyway, they weren't even here tonight. And I could see Josh in the corner, sliding away from the rest of us giggling girls, well maybe not giggling, but this wasn't quite the right place for a guy to be.

Libby held up her pink dress in front of her. "Is this all right on me?" She asked and I heard a groan come from the other side of the room. Madison, Lia, Meg, Libby and I all turned to glare at him.

"You don't have to be here!" Lia yelled at him. I began to smirk.

"Yeah, we're about to get changed anyways." Josh was the only one of us to think to change before we all came over to Claudia's house. It was a good thing Lia had a big house or there would never be enough room.

Josh raised his eyebrows, "Then maybe I ought to stay." This time, (although he was joking) we stopped groaning at him and proceeded to chuck things at him. It wasn't until Madi picked up her high heeled shoes, (that were really too high for my little sister to be wearing), that Josh actually got out. I looked straight at Madi's shoes trying to get my point across, and I think she got it.

"Oh, don't go all mom on me. She already caught me doodling a guy's last name on my planner." We all laughed at this.

"Lol." Meg remarked, who I guess knew exactly how it felt, Claudia was her older sister. "What was it, Madison Hart?" Jason Hart was a really fit guy in our class. Madi nodded.

"You guys ever done that?" She asked as we all got changed into our assorted outfits. I am happy to say that I have never done that… well almost never done that.

Libby spoke up though, "Um… Libby Lewis." We all groaned again. I mean Josh's brother was her boyfriend but none of us really saw what she saw in him. He was… evil, and I really mean evil. How him and Josh were related I really didn't know. And every time Carter saw him with his sister he looked like he was going to lose all control.

"So we haven't had a… Claudia Shapiro then." Meg joked.

"Or a Megan… Sikowitz" We all stared at Libby and she laughed, "joking…"

"Don't forget about Amber Lewis." I blushed bright red at that, although I don't know why. I didn't like Josh in that way, did I…?

But actually that brought me back on a subject I wanted to discuss. I brought it up as we finished changing and did the last of our make-up.

"What about Amber West?" I said hesitantly… Madi looked at me shocked.

"What's wrong with Oliver?" She asked.

"It's just that Amber Oliver doesn't quite sound right. And you know dad will be fine with it. He knows to get anywhere in this business you need to have a recognisable name and this way people will connect me to mom."

"And they'll still connect you to Beck because you look so much like him, especially if you make it know you and Madi are sisters." Lia said nodding along.

"Have you asked Beck yet?" Meg asked. I shook my head, I was going to do that tonight after the kickback. That reminded me, Josh was probably bored as hell at the moment. I related this revelation to the others and we all headed downstairs to find Josh in his tux, yes he went so far as to rent a tux, chatting to Tori and Andre.

"Josh!" Libby called out.

He spun around, "Time to go?"

But suddenly Lia burst our bubble, "Um… how are we getting there?" We turned in shock to look at her.

And suddenly we were all shouting.

"We thought you were driving!" aka Meg.

"What do you mean!" from Libby.

"You mean we're stuck!" that was courtesy of Madi

"What the hell, Lia!" and I'm not ashamed to say I was getting pissed off at this moment. I did inherit bits of my mom after all.

Josh was the voice of reason though, "Carter?" Libby now looked extremely depressed to have to spend more bad news, but he was _her _brother, nobody else knew.

"He's already there. He had to go early to set up some stuff with Eve." Carter hates parties, and he really had to be there on the one night we really needed him.

Unfortunately an idea came into my mind. I really didn't want to say it though. Bryce, Josh's brother, really creeped me out but he was my only option, our only option at this point.

"Bryce…" I whispered and the others groaned as they realized I was right. Well, all of them but Libby, (even Josh) who had a massive smile on her face. So Libby called him… and we sat there for fifteen minutes waiting for him to show up. So when he did we were desperate to get out the door.

As he entered Libby ran over to him and kissed him, screaming "Bryce!" I think I was about to be relieved off the contents of my stomach at this point so I redirected my vision to the TV.

The newsman's voice read out, "Scandal has been unleashed this morning as Parker Lewis has escaped from jail for the second time. He was convicted of murder and attempted murder but was not given the death penalty, even after his first escape. The police fear for his initially targeted couple and their two children, Be…." Quick as a flash Bryce turned off the television and smiled at me.

I winced and stormed off to the van, the girls followed me, but Josh and Bryce were left behind arguing massively. I heard a punch and Josh ran out into the van and in the driver's seat.

"I caught him by surprise, but we need to get moving." He said and hit the gas, storming into the distance. Josh hated his brother but this was unusual for him. He left me wondering what the hell was going on.

**Oh and obviously this is set in the future but this isn't the point of the story so I'm not going to set a time zone.**


	2. Chapter 2

**BTW, pairings of original characters are Bade, Cabbie and Tandre. (also Trinjiin.) Oh and I decided I liked the other title better than my original.**

_But it turns out I was still stuck in last place._

* * *

><p><em><strong>Josh's POV<strong>_

"Parker Lewis has escaped from jail for the second time. He was convicted of murder and attempted murder but was not given the death penalty, even after his first escape. The police fear for his initially targeted couple and their two children, Be…." I knew what was coming next. But shock had hit me, and somehow I couldn't move. Not until everyone else was out of the room anyway, then I turned towards my brother in fury.

"He's out?" I snarled at him and he just looked at me and laughed.

"Yes he's out." He said. That wasn't good news for those people out in his truck. Most of them were the kids of the people involved in the whole mess the first time. Especially Madi and Amber… God, there was no way I was going to let either of them get in a car with him. I was even worried about Libby at this point.

I ran for the door but I was too slow. Bryce slammed down the door before I made it through it.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, little brother. Not a very smart move." He looked like he would do anything to keep me quiet. "Tonight I'm going to have some fun. And I'm going to avenge our father. Here that Josh, _our _father, not just mine, ours. And it's their fault we grew up without him, Beck and Jade's." It wasn't until Parker, (I just couldn't call that man dad.) was stuck in jail that mom had found out she was pregnant with Bryce and then when he got out the first time, she stupidly took him back and I arrived. My parents obviously weren't very smart with contraception. It just wasn't possibly they could be that unlucky.

"He shot a thirteen year old girl in cold blood and then tried to shoot another. Who, by the way, just happens to be the mother of two of my closest friends. The man was completely sick. I don't care if he's _our _father, why are you defending him?"

"Because I am like him. I know I would do the same in his position and so I can't blame him for it. I want to have my father back."

"At the cost of lives."

"Well, now that's just an added bonus. Well, anyway, I've got to go, Libby's waiting for me," he winked, "and so is Amber and Lia and well all the rest of those girls." He laughed and reached for the door hinge, so I got up my courage and… I punched him. I'm not weak you know. I managed to knock him out cold, although it may have just been the shock of it. I had never done anything like that before. But I couldn't avoid to just stand there marvelling at myself. I grabbed a gun off of his body, thinking I might need it. He always carried one, and it would probably be better if I had it himself. The fact that he could get a gun with such ease said something about security here, didn't it?

I ran for the front seat of the van and slid in next to Amber, hitting the gas as quickly as I could.

"I caught him by surprise but we have to get moving." I told them as we sped round the corner.

"What! Why!" Libby yelled. It was not fun having her dating my brother. Thankfully Meg next to her elbowed her right in the ribs and she shut up. It took us a while to get to the Kickback, and I was pretty much silent the entire way. I was lost in my thoughts… why did it hurt so much thinking about something happening to Amber? Did I like her like that? No, now was not the time to think about that, but I did make a vow I was not going to leave her side the whole night, which lead to be breaking this rule the moment we arrived, running to find Carter.

He was setting up with Eve for the visual effects. Oh yeah, Meg was performing tonight. I hoped I wouldn't miss that but I knew it was a possibility.

"Eve." I nodded to her, "Can I have a second with Carter please." She nodded and kind of scuttled off.

"See ya, CJ." She called as she left. Carter then turned to face me.

"What's up Josh, how was getting ready with four different attractive girls?" He was kidding of course, but I raised my eyebrow at the four, who was he insulting? "I'm not letting you count my sister."

"Actually that's why I need to talk to you." His face paled.

"Bryce…" He looked angry so I quickly continued.

"Yeah, if my brother shows up, get Libby out of here as quickly as you possibly can. Make sure he doesn't take any liberties with… _Liberty._" In my defence I didn't make that joke on purpose.

"You don't need to tell me that. I never liked the guy in the first place. I was planning to go after Meg's performance anyway and I'll drag Libby away with me. I don't really like parties that much anyway. Mom says I get it from my dad." I nodded, knowing Robbie that was pretty likely. But I couldn't imagine him as a teenager, wow, he must have been awkward. Carter as if he had read my mind spoke up. "Mom said he had a puppet." You know, all my friends had parents that had known each other since Lia and Megan's mom joined HA. The only connect my parents had with them was that my dad had tried to kill some of them.

I looked up to see Meg setting up for her performance and Madi and Lia were setting up for back-up. I could see Amber out of the corner of my eye and headed over to her as CJ ran back over to Eve and Libby.

But suddenly my phone rang.

"Are you ever going to learn?" _Shit._

"Parker?" I asked, I had never met him, but I had seen him in tapes. And you know his court trial_s_.

"Aww… you recognise me," he joked, "now stay away from things that aren't your business. And be a good boy and let your brother do his job."

At that point the phone line went dead and another van pulled up, letting a load of guys out, most of them looking drunk. However my brother was here and looked completely sober. I ran straight over to Amber and felt for my gun, making an obvious gesture, so Bryce eyed me up and headed away.

I could only hope that Carter had Libby's back.


	3. Chapter 3

**Yeah, I really didn't cover where they got all these guns from, did I? If you go back a chapter I've now corrected that. Thanks to Wolf Spirit of the Northlands for pointing out that plot flaw. Oh and I hope I wrote Libby well, I decided to write her how I like to write Cat, to show how her mind wanders and the absolutely random things she says actually make sense in her head.**

_How could I have been so stupid?_

_**Libby's POV**_

I looked up as Meg started the song.

"_He was a boy, she was a girl._

_Can I make it any more obvious?" _

Meg didn't like doing newly released songs as she felt like she was copying the artist. This song actually suited her voice down to the ground as well. I smiled at her and up on the stage I saw her smile. I could see Lia looking at my brother though at this point.

I nudged Eve, who was standing next to me. "I think Lia has a little crush." I whispered although it may well have been a completely coincidental glance.

She nodded and smiled which was something I didn't really see Eve do a lot. I guess she took after Sinjiin in that aspect, Trina was completely different. She was so starkly different from her mother that in fact I was surprised she had even shown up at all and Carter as well. Parties weren't really their thing.

"It looks like there's quite a bit of romance in the air tonight." She whispered back, pointing at Josh and Amber.

"Oh my God! How could she not tell me?" I screamed in a loud voice, I mean nobody really noticed, it was a loud party, but I saw Eve cover her ears. She didn't really like loud noises, or loud people. Man, she sounded like a startled squirrel. But still how could Amber actually not tell me she liked Josh! They'd be perfect together! They could get married and have kids and… oh my gosh they should make me godmother. I'd be such a fantastic godmother, or maybe they'd name their kids after me! Little Libby Lewis, oh wait, then she'd have the same name as me when I was married to Bryce. Or maybe I could name me and Bryce's daughter Amber Lewis. Then we'd match! If me and Bryce were still together then… but of course we would be. Despite the fact that sometimes he really scared me, and sometimes I wondered if my friends were right and I shouldn't be with him. Sometimes I honestly didn't _want_ to be with him.

Eve sounded like she'd read my mind. "And that's your boyfriend over there." My eyes wandered over to Bryce, who had just showed up with his friends. The friends that I always felt really uncomfortable around, but I never said anything. I wasn't quite sure why I was nervous around them… well I was, but it wasn't worth saying anything to him. He almost walked over to his brother but after Josh did something that I couldn't quite see he did a U-turn on the spot. Apparently Meg saw though, as I heard her waver on the note.

"_Five years from now_

_S…She sits at home." _She quickly recovered from the mishap though.

"_Feeding the baby, she's all alone." _I sang along underneath my breath, trying to ignore the fact he was walking right towards us with his friends, but Eve looked scared. Although I told myself I was being paranoid, I nudged her again. "Go get Carter will you?" I told her and she ran off, again proving her resemblance to a startled squirrel as she looked happy to get out of there.

Bryce moved to let Eve past, and then walked up to me and kissed me. I let him, although I was slightly worried. It was a bit more forceful than normal, and Bryce wasn't gentle normally. As we broke of his friend jeered which made me even more uncomfortable than I was already was and I was starting to wish I hadn't told Eve to go, but I knew how painful it would be for her at the moment.

The next time Bryce leaned into kiss me again, I stepped back and felt my back against the Asphalt Café wall. "What's wrong Libby…" he slurred, and I could have sworn he was drunk, but he and his friends didn't quite have that drunken look on their faces yet. Some of the people he had let out of his van did though and I could have sworn he would have done it just to ruin the party. He hadn't really liked HA since he got expelled a couple years ago for breaking a guys' ribs. He had hit on a guy's girlfriend and when she didn't go for him he had beat the guy up. Don't ask me why I'm dating him, because sometimes I really don't know.

"You bored?" Bryce continued, "Fancy a quickie in the back then?" He grinned and his friends leered at me again.

I gulped, wondering when Eve would show up with Carter. I tried to step back but there was nowhere left to go, so I whispered. "Bryce, you know I'm just not ready yet." He glanced around.

"Well, I guess all I really need is you in the back of the van, and once you're there we can see." I gulped again and shook my head, but it looked like he was about to pick me up and swing me over his shoulder. An hour ago I had run up to greet him, how things could change. I mean, I was used to things like this when he was drunk, but right now I think he was completely sober.

I thought I was done for but suddenly I saw someone tap him on his shoulder. When he turned around I saw someone punch him right in the face.

_Carter!_

At that moment I was scared for him as well, Bryce could pummel him into the ground. Carter wasn't short, but he wasn't tall and he was skinny as a twig. Thankfully he knew this though, "You may be able to beat me up, but if you look around you and your little gang are largely outnumbered." He was referring to the entirety of HA that was here at the moment. "So I would advise that you leave my sister alone." Bryce reluctantly stepped away and headed to his van. Half way there he turned back and looked at me.

"You and your little friends better watch your back." He snarled.

I collapsed into Carter's arms, not having really realised how scared out of my mind I had been until he had left.


	4. Chapter 4

_So very, very stupid,_

* * *

><p><em><strong>Madi's POV<strong>_

"_I'm with the skater boy _

_I said see you later boy _

_I'll be back stage after the show _

_I'll be at the studio _

_Singing the song we wrote _

_About a girl you used to know" _

We finished and held our pose up on the big stage as Meg finished her note. The moment the music stopped we burst out laughing as we fell into each other's arms. Lia even very almost fell off the stage but Meg pulled her back. I wonder what it was like for her to sing back-up to her little sister. I mean, I had sung back up for Amber but I wasn't sure she had sung back-up for me. But I didn't think Lia minded because Meg and she had a pretty good relationship. Not that me and Amber didn't of course. We walked down the stairs in our line to the bottom, our eyes searching for someone we actually knew at all, there were surprising few. Well, of course there were the classic HA students that you always saw in the halls but somehow Amber, Josh, Libby, Carter and even Eve had disappeared. I thought they would at least wait until we had finished. A wolf whistle to the left of me as we walked through the crowd forming alerted me to the fact that most of the people around me were completely wasted. This was a fact that Ikner (jnr) seemed to have missed as she ran through the crowd yelling. "Madison Oliver! Has anybody seen Madison Oliver?"

"I'm over here!" I yelled as Ikner headed over to me. Apparently his dad had run the school as well, but had quit and let someone else taken over. But he said he had fond memories of this place so he came back to run it himself.

"Madi, I need to speak to you," he told me, "I was looking for Amber too, but somebody told me she had gone home to a friend's house. Josh I think it was." Uh… if Amber had gone home and taken Josh with her, combined with the fact that Carter had disappeared meant I had no ride home. "Come with me." He said and nodded to Meg and Lia behind me to follow too. Another whistle passed us as we walked past, but Meg flipped her blue hair back behind her and gave him a glare that although drunk would have silenced anybody. Meg could be scary as hell when she felt like it; I couldn't really see where she got it from looking at her family. He mom and dad were totally calm and although Lia could get a bit hyper, but wasn't anywhere near as goth as Meg, sometimes it seemed like she should be my mom's daughter instead of me. Well that was why dad always said mom didn't like Tori, because she could see something of herself in her sometimes, when she was younger, and dad had fallen for mom so her reasoning was that there was no reason dad wouldn't fall for Tori. But Beck didn't fall for Tori at all, well that was obvious if he had I wouldn't be here.

Ikner led us to his office and hit the on button on the TV. The monotone announcer read out, "Scandal has been unleashed this morning as Parker Lewis has escaped from jail for the second time." Oh I think it was the news report that was playing earlier! "He was convicted of murder and attempted murder but was not given the death penalty, even after his first escape. The police fear for his initially targeted couple and their two children. Beck Oliver is the brother of Lewis' murder victim and police are worried for his spouse, Jade West and their two daughters, Madison and Amber Oliver." Shock hit me like a wave and I clutched Meg's hand.

"What?" I whispered.

"I think you should get home as soon as possible." He told me. "Megan," Wow, Meg hated being called by her full name and I could see her clench in the corner of the room, "Claudia, will you make sure she gets back alright."

We left the room quickly and headed to the lockers. I leant across Meg's guitar locker, strumming it by accident as I considered the situation.

Lia at this point read out a quote from her locker, (she covered it in quotes for the fun of it) that described the situation perfectly, "This Thing of Darkness." It really was a thing of darkness, this truth I had just been told. There was a murderer after me, a murderer that had killed my aunt. I was scared right now, I was feeling true terror and I had never felt that before. Wait, Parker Lewis… he couldn't possibly be connected to Bryce. Well, Bryce had grown up without a father but I knew he and Josh had grown up with their father's name, knowing his personality it would make complete sense. I never doubted that Bryce could be a cold-blooded killer. Josh though, I would trust with my life. I was certain I could trust him with my sister's; he wouldn't let his brother hurt her.

"We really need to get back to your place." Lia said, dangling the car key's she had just retrieved from her locker in front of me, it was a good thing she had left her car here after school just so we had a lift back from the Kickback. Lia was good at thinking ahead and all that. We headed to the car slowly, walking past the boys who were still leering. Did they really not have anything better to do?

It wasn't until we got into the car that I realised all of our parents were out tonight. It was a re-union thing they did every term while we went to our kickback, all six of them. The only people that could be home were Lia and Meg's aunt and uncle but unfortunately I didn't really know them enough to come over to their house. Oh well, I guess I have just got to take life as it comes.

**There we go, another chapter, we're about to get into the real drama. Anyway, hoped you liked this one even though I don't think it was really the best chapter I've ever written. Actually it's not in the slightest, sorry Madi!**


	5. Chapter 5

_I walked right into a trap._

_**Amber's POV**_

After his brother showed up, Josh ushered me into the van as quick as he could. He sat me down in the front seat next to me and I heard a click as the doors locked. I looked up at Josh, "Now, will you tell me why you rushed me into the van so quickly."

He gulped and took a deep breath in… "I…" He stuttered and trailed off. "My dad…" He tried again but the same thing happened. I put my hands on my hips, well as much as you can put your hands on your hips in a cramped car. We were still using Bryce's, which was kind of weird. I gave Josh a glare as an indication he should actually finish his story this time.

It didn't appear as if he could though, "Look, I just want you to stay away from my brother and any other members of my family that you may see. As a matter of fact just stay away from anyone with the surname Lewis." He told me, just about as forcefully as I had ever heard Josh speak. What other members of his family? His dad had left when he was small, I wasn't sure if he had even met him. And his mom Jessica was perfectly nice, it wasn't as if she was going to hurt me. Surely Bryce wouldn't hurt me either… who was I kidding, anybody who saw that murderous look in his eyes tonight knew he was capable of hurting anybody right now.

Josh's phone started to vibrate loudly in his pocket. "Josh…" I started.

"No! Amber for once in your life, please listen to somebody else."

"But…" his phone…

"NO! AMBER, PLEASE!" Wow! Josh was getting worked up about this.

"YOUR PHONE!" I yelled back at him and he had the courtesy to look embarrassed. He looked down and grabbed his phone, handing it to me. I put the call arriving on speaker.

There was a scuffling and then I heard a voice.

"Hurry up, get that lock picked…" It was Bryce's voice but apparently he didn't realise he had called Josh. "Look, just smash that window already if it's not working." Whose house were they breaking in to? Josh looked at me with panic all over his face.

"This is the way to make them pay." Bryce voice spoke, clearer this time. Josh's face paled even more. "I can't believe we made it back before them!" Bryce laughed down the line. "So you know what to do…"

"Grab her the moment she walks through the door, boss." I heard another voice say.

"And shoot anyone that tries to stop us. I'm not going to make the same mistake as my father, being reluctant to shoot; he ended up in jail anyway…" I strained my ears to try and hear something else, but it was no use, the line was dead. I turned to stare at Josh and he began to talk really quickly.

"My dad's a murderer and he was sent to jail, but escaped again and then conceived me and now he's got out again. Oh, and he probably wants to kill you and your sister. And Bryce's helping him and now I'm really scared for you so I'm not letting you leave my sight. Oh and Libby is in trouble as well because Cat was slightly involved and Libby was dating Bryce but Carter's looking after to her. Oh and Parker, who is my dad by the way, shot your aunt and killed her and tried to shoot your mom so you're not allowed to tell your parents because they might really hate me. Oh and apparently my brother just broke into someone's house so I can't take you back to your house. I also nicked my brother's gun off of him and now I have it. Oh yeah, my brother carries a gun and if I'm not careful he might shoot you." Josh took a deep breath once he was finished and I blinked in shock… His dad shot my aunt? His dad's trying to shoot me, his brother's also trying to shoot me? Crap, earlier this night my biggest worry had been getting my school work in on time.

I picked up my phone, about to dial Madi's number but Josh looked at me confused.

"You just told me a maniac is trying to kill me and my little sister, don't you think it would be fair of me to warn my little sister?" I snapped at him, still slightly confused myself, (hence the rather large amount of punctuation). He nodded and looked at me sheepishly.

"Madi?" I called into the phone as she picked up.

"No, it's Santa Claus…" She smirked and I sighed underneath my breath.

"Stop it, I'm being serious." I reprimanded her and I could almost see the little smug smile on my sister's face fall. I wasn't serious that often.

"What is it, Amber?" That was Libby's voice on the line, apparently this was a three way call.

"Are you guys almost home?" There was a silence on the other end before they both replied. I can imagine they were probably nodding on the other end.

"Yeah…"

"Yep!" I bet you can guess who was who their…

As I said that Josh pulled into the drive of his own house.

"Actually we're here now." Madi told me and we both waited for a response from Libby.

"Just getting out the car…" Well that was a fortunate coincidence, who says things like that don't happen in really life.

"Okay, so stay behind, Carter or Meg, or whoever you have with you and slowly open the door." I dictated as Josh demonstrated (ignoring the fact that they can't actually see me) and slowly pulled the doorknob open.

"Wait, why?" Libby asked and I could almost feel Madi stop in her tracks. Hesitantly I responded, adopting a similar tone to the one Josh had used earlier.

"Because Bryce is dangerous…" I told them and again I could almost feel their silent nod. "On the count of three open the door." I continued hoping that I was just being paranoid either that or… I felt a traitorous instinct inside me hope that Josh was lying to me.

"Three…" Madi spoke up.

"Two!" I heard Lia yell, well that was random…

"One." Libby whispered and we all opened the door.

"Oh My God!" We all cried down the phone.

**Okay, that will be your last update b4 Christmas unfortunately as I leave in a day to FLORIDA! Hope that wasn't too much of a cliff-hanger.**


	6. Chapter 6

_One that somehow I didn't even recognise_

**_Madi's POV_**

"Oh My God!" We all screamed into our various phones and then simultaneously all burst into laughter as we realised there wasn't really anything there. We had just got ourselves so worked up that the sheer relief had made us crack up, although I knew it was a serious concern given what Ikner had told me earlier and I found myself wondering if my older sister knew what I did. Somehow that tone in her voice made me think that she did. Libby was probably clueless though. I beckoned for Lia and Meg to follow me up to my room and relaxed onto my bean bag.

"Well, that was tense..." Meg said looking around, still slightly nervous. I didn't blame her, what Ikner had told us earlier was freaking me out too. There was a maniac out to get me. I'm not going to lie, that's slightly creepy. I was so caught up in that I didn't realise that my phone was slipping out of my pocket. Oops, spoiler alert, well I guess I won't tell you how that came back to bite my in the ass just get. So back to the present, or I guess back to the past.

"Yeah, I thought I was going to scream when you opened that door." Lia remarked and to be honest I didn't really doubt that she might have. In fact, in the mood I was in I might have screamed. I was literally on the edge of my seat. And maybe there was a good reason, we heard a loud crack downstairs and loud voices echoing.

"They're upstairs, now go!" And suddenly there were footsteps running up the stairs and a person entered the room. He looked about 20 and smiled when he saw us in the room.

"Bryce, they're in here." He called out the door, Meg and I got to our feet to try and shut him up and find some method to get out of the house but he pulled a gun out of his pocket and aimed it as us. "Nobody move, or I will shoot. Trust me." We tensed and looked at each other, Meg looking traitorously close to getting up and trying something anyway. Lia knew her sister well and she grabbed her by her shoulders to hold her back as Josh's brother entered the room.

"Man, two encounters in less than an hour, these girls are easy to find." He remarked.

"Yet, you got scared away by the first girl's wimpy brother." I saw Lia tense up in the corner as Bryce _friend_(?) insulted Carter. Maybe she did actually like Libby's twin, wouldn't that be cool. It seemed like a match that would work. But I should probably get back to the situation at hand. There was a man holding a gun out at us who I didn't think would be afraid to shoot.

Bryce turned around and glared at the person next to him. "Shut it, Alex. Didn't you hear my father? I'm in charge." So I was right, Bryce and Parker Lewis were related, but what did that mean about Josh? I was pretty sure my older sister liked him. But I didn't really have time to worry about that at the moment due to the situation that I had mentioned several times. Man, I was really repetitive. I hope you're not getting sick of me. As if you'd ever get sick of me, well, that was self-centred.

"He also said that we weren't supposed to shoot unless we had to, and not to deviate from the plan. But I don't plan on following that either." The guy, Alex, I suppose said. Um... deviating from the plan, what was it about that that didn't sound very good. I can't imagine that the plan was very good and unless they were planning to deviate from the plan to murder us in cold blood like Parker had tried to do with my parents and instead take us to a cloud of rainbow coloured cotton-candy before taking us to meet some unicorns then the plan deviation was probably worse than the plan itself.

"Which one of these does Parker want, anyway?" Three separate people turned to look at me and I winced. "Well that answers that question. So as long as we keep this one in alright shape, we can do what we want with the other two." Alex laughed. This boy was actually scaring me. A small smile was appearing on Bryce's face as well, I may not exactly be immediately in a lot of trouble but Lia and Meg were and I knew once I had fulfilled my _purpose_, whatever it was that Parker actually wanted me for I'd end up in a grave too.

"Fine" He grunted begrudgingly, "Do what you want with those two." He nodded to Lia and Meg and I think I felt my jaw drop wide open. They were his brother's best-friends, how could he just not care.

"Like hell you will." Meg screamed and Lia shrugged, and stopped holding back.

"Hey, we're going to die anyway." Lia said as Meg ran over to the boys in my room, pushing her blue hair back behind her and doing a straight karate kick randomly, knocking the gun right out of Alex's hand.

Surprisingly Bryce just laughed, the boy brushing his dirty blond hair out of his face and letting out a very evil smile. His, once again friend(?) gave him a glare, it was obvious that he didn't really find it funny.

While Bryce was cracking up with laughter Meg looked at him. This wasn't funny for her either. Although _I _almost started laughing as I realised how absurd this situation actually was. We were three teenage girls sitting in a bedroom with their best friend's brother and a random boy threatening her. And one teenage girl had randomly got up and kicked the gun out of said stranger's hand. How often exactly did that happen? Oh wait, we're about to get shot. Serious time now, I think.

"What next then, Meg?" Bryce remarked as he laughed. Personally I was thinking that myself, but then I heard a click behind me and Lia was holding the gun that Meg had just kicked.

"Are you kidding me?" Alex yelled on the edge of his fuse. "The chick can shoot now!" Meg slowly retreated back to Lia, she wasn't exactly in the best position at the moment. And she needed to make sure they didn't try and grab her to prevent Lia doing anything.

"No, the chick cannot shoot. Lia couldn't hit the sea off a boat."

"Correct..." Lia laughed "And so if I aim at your head I'm more likely to hit your... well, let's just say you might never be able to have kids." They gulped and exchanged glances. "Now back off!" Lia screamed. And to I think to most of our surprise they actually did, or at least, they did right after Alex dived to the floor, which appeared like an accident but can you guess what he was actually going for that had slipped out of my pocket earlier... As they left though, Lia, Meg and I exchanged glance. They were surprisingly upbeat for two people who just almost got their heads blown off; I had to admire their guts.

"What's the chance they've actually left the house?" I asked and we exchanged glances, _again._

"About zero" Meg replied and Lia perked up.

"Window?" She asked and we all nodded. If we snuck out the window back to our car we might be able to get away to... well, anyway away from here. So I guess out the window we go.

**I updated fom Disney Land! Hope you enjoyed that and I'm trying out a signature.**

**Sensitivity, Serenity and Insanity**

**CANON 24**

**P.S. Check out my new OC story I'm writing with Pinkbull115 - Turning Tables - thx to Tabylynn, livvylovesyou, Coudy, oops I mean Gothic Guitars and AwkwardAusTurtle who already have.**


	7. Chapter 7

_Who knew that feelings could be so dangerous?_

_**Libby's POV**_

"Oh My God" we screamed and then we all burst out laughing, there was absolutely nothing there. And I have to assume there was nothing there for Madi or Amber either. In fact I was laughing so hard now that Carter and Eve were beginning to look at me very strangely. Seriously doesn't my twin and one of my closest friends know me better than that? I'm not anywhere near how loud I can laugh yet. This is perfectly normal for me, 100 per cent usual, nothing out of the ordinary. But maybe me going on like that was the only thing actually displaying my nerves. Oh never mind, all that was happening is that I just felt very stupid now, there was nothing to be scared of in the first place... I hope.

"Well that was anti-climactic." Amber said through the phone and I smiled again.

"Yep... No maniac with a machine gun about to shoot us." Carter and Eve were really staring at me now; maybe I should have been filling them in as I went along. Not that I knew much more than they did at the moment.

"So wait, why is my ex-boyfriend dangerous...? Apart from the fact that, well, he's Bryce." I could almost see the smile light up on Amber's face as I uttered the words ex-boyfriend. It made me happy to say it too, surprisingly. Well actually, not too surprisingly, it was Bryce.

"Um... Well." Amber trailed off at I got the feeling this was something she wasn't going to tell me. I think I should try the other Oliver sister.

"Madi, should I even bother asking you to tell me?" There was silence on her end of the line. Silence was unusual for Madi, not as unusual as it was for me, but still quite unusual.

"Earth to Madi" I repeated trying to get her attention.

There was still no response.

"Houston... We have a problem." Amber remarked as Carter started tapping his watch to try and get me of the phone.

And I guess I could probably go, it wasn't as if anything could have really happened to Madi. She was there laughing with us earlier, which meant there was nothing at her end. Well nothing wrong anyway. It would be absolutely fine for me to hang up now. I mean, my mom does it all the time. In fact every time Eve's mom does it she hangs up, actually dad does that too... So applying my parent's logic I remarked. "Bye" and hung up the phone. I mean I had to be polite, and talking on the phone to Amber all the time was just rude.

"So!" I smiled at Carter and Eve backed away, just slightly. Yep a squirrel is the perfect metaphor for her. Ooh, my uncle had a squirrel costume; he lent it to my cousin and then accidentally hit him on his bike. Or at least, we think it was accidentally... But still I guess...

"He..." I giggled "our uncle hit a squirrel on a bike." Eve and Carter, who being my twin knew what I was talking about, were looking at me very strangely... "But it was alright, the squirrel was actually my cousin Luke." Wow... I sounded a lot like my mother all of a sudden; don't think that's a good thing.

"So… Because I highly doubt that that was what you were talking about with Madi and Amber, what was it you were talking about?"

"For some reason Amber thought that there was a guy inside your house, Bryce, was it?" Eve spoke up. Eve didn't know Bryce very well at all, she tended to kind of live in her own world.

"Do I even want to know how you know that?" Carter asked.

"Hey, I have good hearing..." Eve protested quietly and I smiled. She actually did have amazing hearing; maybe not talking so much gave her superhuman hearing abilities... Ha, she could become Superman... Apart from the fact instead of all the super powers he has she can just hear really well and instead of being from Krypton she was from LA and instead of um…being descended from aliens (I think Superman was descended from aliens) her parents were, no actually I think that one works, but her name isn't Clark and, yeah... She's a girl, and oh never mind. I'll consider Eve's similarities to Superman another time.

"Yep and don't ask me to explain more than Eve just did, Carter, because honestly I don't actually know" I told him quickly before he began to pester me. But it didn't actually matter. He'd pester me eventually I was just killing time at the moment, but it did work... I mean he nodded at me. So I'll take that as a win. I gave him one of my brilliant smiles as well and he gave me a look. Okay, so maybe I'll a little bit hyper now. Maybe the anticipation made me hyper, which would be interesting. Or maybe someone spiked the punch at the kickback, maybe I'm drunk! But wait wouldn't that make me really sleepy… Maybe I'm anti-drunk! Um… okay, I'm not sure that's a word. Maybe I should ask mom, she'd definitely say it was a word.

"Carter, is anti-drunk a word?" He looked at me like I was mad.

"No…"

"Mom says it is." Wow I sounded like a five-year old all of a sudden.

"Do you need any more proof than it's not a word?" He did actually have a point. Mom was wrong a lot, always better to ask dad, unless you want a parent to say yes to something, then you've got to go to mom. Like one time I asked to go to Disneyworld and we left the next week. She took us out of school and everything. Dad wasn't so happy about that though, but he was alright with it, I think he's still doing anything just to see his wife smile.

So anyway Carter, Eve and I sat down on the couch randomly flicking through channels for about fifteen minutes, smiling when I heard them announce Cat Valentine's new single come on. I got up and began to dance around room singing along.

"_Because, baby life isn't easy_

_But baby life's not hard._

_Just keep playing your cards right and strumming your guitar." _I started head-banging around the room, yep; I was very definitely hyper at the moment.

Madi, Meg and Lia burst through the door completely out of breath at this point though and gave me a very weird look. To be honest they looked like complete and utter wrecks too. But Meg blurted out,

"Please can we stay here, a maniac just tried to kill us."

Lia and Madi turned to look at her angry.

"MEG!" they yelled at her.

_**Okay, I hope that was alright. A bit short maybe but it was a bit of a filler chapter. The next chapter should be good, and just asking do you guys want Lia/Carter... or not. Anyway**_

_**Sensitivity, Serenity and Insanity**_

_**CANON 24**_


	8. Chapter 8

_My parents for one._

_**Amber's POV**_

Okay, I was _so _freaked out there for a minute. But you know, I think Josh was even more freaked out than I was. Even now, almost twenty minutes after coming through the door and yelling "Oh my God!" as an _empty _room was revealed to us… Josh _still _kept glancing at us every few minutes.

Not being able to think of anything else to do I had turned on the TV to a random channel. And although we had both smiled as Libby's mom's new song 'Strumming your guitar' came on, the tension was slowly increasing. I think that was partly because Josh felt, and looked for that matter, so very, very nervous. And as much as I hated it there was that little nagging voice inside telling me that Josh wasn't telling me the whole truth, or if he was, was I safe with a man whose father had killed my Aunt Jade and had tried to kill my parents? Things had begun to escalate as Madi had rung off without warning, not that I didn't think she couldn't handle herself but sometimes I think that one day my little sister will get herself into a situation she can't wiggle her way out of.

It really didn't help that I had lost contact with Libby too. But I guess I just had to trust Carter there. Just like they were probably thinking they had to trust Josh, but they didn't know who he was, what his family had done. The real question was, did _I _trust Josh? I certainly didn't trust his brother. But Josh had never been anything like Bryce. Why would he start now?

Suddenly my pear phone rang rapidly, with the ring I had assigned to Madi. Me and Josh both reached for the phone and got it at the same time. As I realised that neither of us would back down and that we actually did need to pick up the phone, I looked at him.

"Shall we put it on speaker?" I asked and he nodded, letting me accept the phone and set it so we could both hear.

"Hello…" A voice rang out through the phone, a voice that definitely wasn't Madi's. My first thought was Bryce, but it wasn't his either.

"Who is this?" Josh looked at me and put a finger over his lips, making a signal, but if this was about my little sister I wasn't going to keep quiet.

"This is Amber Oliver, and who the hell are you? More to the point what the hell are you doing with my sister's phone?" I yelled and Josh put his head in his hands.

"Amber?" This time this was Bryce's voice on the phone. "Perfect…" and I could almost see him smirking behind the phone. I could also see Josh clenching his fist so hard they were turning white.

"Tell me; is my little brother with you? Your sister's with me." This time I wanted to leapt out at him and hit him, hard. Right now, I wanted to shoot him through the head and be done with it… it was the first time I had ever felt like this but I actually wanted this man to die. And I wanted him to die painfully.

"I'm right here," Josh replied calmly, although he didn't look calm in the slightest. "What do you want with Madi?"

"Don't play innocent with me little brother, you know exactly what I want. I need to make them pay for what they did to our family. Without Beck and Jade we could have been a normal family, with a stay-at-home mom and a dad with a steady job. We could have actually been happy, but they ruined that, they ruined my life so now I'm going to have to ruin there's." Bryce snarled down the phone.

"Without a psychotic dad we could have had a normal family, it's nothing to do with Beck and Jade. And I am happy, or at least I was until our dad was back in the picture, I'm perfectly fine without Parker and I always have been. The only thing that's stopping _you _being happy is yourself." Josh retorted quickly. I was still kind of frozen. He was going to pay my family pay through my little sister. He was going to hurt her probably kill her. This unbelievable amount of anger surged up in my body, only combated by the sorrow reaching out and making me fell so very hollow inside myself.

"Can we move on with the brother bickering and get on with the more important stuff please?" The voice that I heard at the start came down the phone again. "We are willing to do a trade."

_A trade? Did that mean what I thought it meant?_

Bryce laughed again, "The oldest Oliver sister for the youngest one."

I was about to yell 'YES' into the phone but Josh put out his arm and signalled for me to be quiet again. This time I gave him a chance, he probably knew his brother better than I did. That protective urge to help my sister was still very much there and I would accept the offer, but I knew to best help Madi I should at least listen to Josh.

"Why on Earth would you want to trade? Isn't that just unnecessary risks?" What the hell was he playing at?

"If they want to trade let them trade!" I yelled, "Don't try and persuade them not to, I'm willing to do it. In fact, I will do it. You cannot make me sit back while my sister dies." You know it was kind of ironic mom and dad are always trying to make us stop arguing with each other, but I'm still willing to die for her. I guess that's just what you do for your family.

I could hear the boys on the other end sniggering at me. How old were they, eleven? It was almost funny how they were plotting my death while acting like a bunch of little kids.

"Yeah, Josh. You heard her; she wants to die for her sister. Let her die." The unknown voice said mockingly, does that mean Josh knew who he was?

"Not without a reason" He demanded. I looked at him, whatever reason they gave I know he would stop me going. He valued my life above my sisters. That made me sick.

"How's this for a reason then?" Bryce replied to him, "There are so many more things you can do with a seventeen year old girl than with a fifteen year old." He remarked, sending shivers down my spine. "I mean we can have our fun with a fifteen year old, but then I feel bad. And I don't like to feel bad unnecessarily really. And I'm breaking the law… which you know what I haven't actually done yet. Wow, weird, not that I actually care about breaking the law if I'm not caught and put in jail." Josh and I exchanged glances. How could he have possibly not broken the law after all he had put us through?

"Well, anyway, I think we should leave you to make your choice now… If your little boyfriend gets up the guts to let you go, meet us at HA in half an hour."

"Oh I'll be there alright!" I yelled and the phone suddenly cut me off.

I turned and looked at Josh.

"Will you give me a ride?" I asked him.

"Don't tell me you're actually thinking of going." He told me, looking at me as if I was completely insane.

"I'm going to go," and I was definitely going to go, if there was even the slightest chance I could save Madi then I was definitely going to take it. "The only question is if you're going to take me or if I'm going to have to drive myself."

"You don't even know how to drive!" He looked at me incredulously.

"I don't care." And I didn't, not in the slightest.

_**Wow, dramatic scene if I do say so myself. Which of course I won't because I'm not self-centres at all. In fact I'm perfect.**_

_**Where did that come from? I'm pretty much the most flawed person ever. And now I'm talking to myself… well, I guess I'm talking to you… never mind.**_

_**REVIEW!**_

_**Oh and those looking forward to Clia (It sounds better than Larter) you'll probably get some the chapter after next.**_


	9. Chapter 9

_I wonder if they're worried._

_**Josh's POV**_

Amber turned and looked at me, brushing her dark hair back out of her face.

"Will you give me a ride?" I looked at her like she was honestly insane. She could not be actually thinking of going. If she went she'd die, and I'm not sure I ever live with myself if I just let her die. It was so obviously a trap as well. If she went there she'd meet the same fate as Madi. God, Madi… was I a bad person for stopping Amber, because there was no way I was going to let her walk out that door.

"Don't tell me you're thinking of going." I don't think we could save Madi now. If they actually had Madi of course, which we didn't even have proof that they did, except for the fact they had her cell-phone. But she had had it on her half an hour ago and she had only been home which means they must have got her at home, and as much as I admired Madi I don't think even she could get out of a situation like that. It's not as if the girls could overpower my brother and Alex or anything. And it wasn't until I heard Alex on the phone that I knew it had all become really serious. He was one of Bryce's _acquaintances, _but he never did anything unless there was something in it for him. Once he was in something though, he got the job done. And he never got caught.

"I'm going to go." When she said that I felt something hurt inside, letting her go would be like a death sentence. And I don't know why but I couldn't bear to lose Amber. "The only question is if you're going to take me or if I'm going to drive myself."

"You don't even know how to drive!" She'd kill herself on the road, she actually would. And then Madi would die as well.

"I don't care." I could see the determination in her eyes as she headed to the door, and I knew then that if I couldn't convince her otherwise I was going to have to take her to her doom. And that hurt more than I could have ever imagined. And I was actually sick of pretending, this had clarified it for me… you know that feeling you can't be without someone, when you think that they are the only thing in the world worth living for. I was feeling it right now. For the girl right in front of me who seemed determined to kill herself.

"Please…" I begged her.

"Why do you care so much? It's my life. I'll do what I want with it. I couldn't live with myself if I let my little sister die when I could have saved her." How could she not see how I was feeling right now? But my heart was torn now; I knew she'd always live in pain if she didn't do this. I also knew I would always live in pain if she did. And I'm selfish.

"Can't you see this is all a trap… if you go you won't save your sister, you'll die by her side." I forced out, trying to make her see reason.

"Is there the slightest chance that by going I might save her?" I tried to resist it, but I couldn't lie to her at the moment. This was all too important.

Reluctantly I nodded, "Yes."

"Then I'm going to take it."

"Please." I told her one more time. And this time I leaned forward close to her.

"Josh, I can't live knowing I chose my life over my families." She told me a tear running down her face.

"But I don't think I can live my life without you." I replied. Well that was very sappy for a seventeen year old boy, are you sure I'm not in some cheesy chick flick. Sorry I'm ruining the moment aren't I?

So basically I leant forward and I kissed the girl of my dreams that I never knew I loved until it was far too late. And as she pulled away the tears were falling thicker and faster. Neither of us were surprised about the kiss. I think we both felt the same way right now.

"Josh, I'm sorry." She told me, but it was alright. It was time to be self-less, it was time to let her go rather than to force her to stay at the cost of the life's of her loved ones.

"It's fine, Amber, I'll take you. But I promise you, I'll never forget you," Wow, seriously what is with the sappiness here. Sorry I'm probably bugging you on all the romantic moments. I just can't believe I actually said that, never mind.

So we got into the car and did the drive to HA, completely silent. I couldn't believe I was going to lose her. I sure hoped Madi appreciated all of this because if she didn't, then I had let Amber get tortured and murdered… and I really didn't want to think about what they would do to her.

As we arrived and got out it was deserted apart from a couple trucks in the car park. I walked slowly holding her hand which she was squeezing so tight I thought she would break my knuckles. We reached the school, standing in front of the nearest truck and looked around for them.

Amber looked at me, as vulnerable as I had ever seen Jade West's daughter. "Josh, I'm scared."

I leant down to her and kissed her again, lightly. I couldn't believe that was going to be my last kiss with her ever. It was only our second kiss.

"So am I, but we'll live through it." She winced, oops, bad choice of words there.

Suddenly we heard a click from the doors behind us and we backed away slowly, Amber clutching my hand for dear life. We turned around and people were appearing from every van, surrounding us. From the one we were now facing my brother and Alex emerged.

"So you made it." Alex said his eyes greedily focused on Amber, scanning her up and down and letting out this evil smile. I stepped in front of her to try and get her out of his glare.

"Ha, you think you can protect her now little brother." Bryce said laughing, "That ship sailed a long time ago."

"Where's Madi?" Amber whispered behind me causing a massive laugh from the men in front of us.

"How on earth would I know?" Alex said and the look of terror on Amber face grew massively, but there was anger there as well. It was as if she was feeling the two conflicting emotions at the exact same time.

"The little bitch and her friends managed to get away. All she left behind was her mobile phone, which gave us an idea." Bryce said, they seemed to be doing a sick little double act to achieve the objective of scaring us to death. And right now it was working.

"Amber, run…." I whispered to the girl standing behind me as I realised that I had been right. We were tricked.

"Yes Amber, run." Bryce mocked and he beckoned for the people around us to circle closer. "Do you like the re-enforcements, a gift from daddy I suppose? Being in jail for all those years definitely gives you contacts."

Alex looked at Amber behind my back. For once she was playing the damsel in distress. I think she was just so confused, and so devastated she couldn't act any other way. It was a lot for her to take in, and she was tired, she had just found out she was going to die for nothing. It was depressing, but it was true.

"And now I think it's time for us to take what we came for." As Alex finished his sentence I found Amber being pulled away from me and towards Bryce, screaming her head off. The adrenalin seemed to kick in and suddenly she was kicking and screaming, trying anything to get loose. But as she reached the two men, they look a look at her and then motioned to the van.

"No! Please!" I was screaming myself as she was dragged into the vehicle. All too late I reached for the gun that I remembered I had on me but my brother pointed his at me and laughed. Wasn't that sick? My own brother was going to take the girl I loved away from me. So much for sticking by your family, Amber's had even proved they would die for each other. But it had all come to nothing. I collapsed to my knees as I knew I had lost it all. Angry tears flowed down my face as I looked up at them. "Please…"

This got only a bigger laugh, "Sorry, she's ours now." Bryce told me.

"But don't worry; we'll take good care of her. We'll definitely get more use out of her than you have. It'll be _very _fun to have a girl around the place." Alex taunted, trying to make me angry.

I clenched my fists and stared at them, it had worked. "I will kill you. And that is a promise I swear I will keep."

Alex slowly retrieved his gun with ease and pointed it at me. "How about I kill you first." Bryce pulled his hand back though.

"You're my brother, so I won't kill you now. But the next time I see you, if we're still on opposite sides of the playing field I will not hesitate. Now go…" He told me and I leapt up and ran back to my car, my determination increasing. I will not let her die like that. I don't know how but I will find a way to stop it somehow. Just before though I heard a voice.

"You go to the police and she dies. That is something _I _will swear to." I heard my brother calling and I knew I wouldn't dare, just in case he stood to his word. If there was any chance of saving her life I would have to do it another way.


	10. Chapter 10

_Do they have a clue?_

* * *

><p><em><strong>Carter's POV<strong>_

We stared at the arrival of Meg, Lia and Madi coming through the door. What was more shocking though was what had just come out of Meg's mouth. And from the amount of angriness on the other two's faces that statement might just have been true. Suddenly that inner laughing I had been doing about my sister's randomness seemed very stupid.

But was it actually possible, a maniac trying to kill them. I looked at Eve and Libby, seeing the confusion on my face mirrored on theirs. Well, it was mirrored on Libby's; Eve seemed to begin backing away from the loud noises.

"Okay. Explain now." I told them and Meg looked around sheepishly… which was not normal for Meg. It was very not normal for Meg. I'm pretty sure that's not grammatically correct, but you know, I don't really care at the moment. They gave glances at each other.

"You know what; I don't actually want to know…" Eve said nervously, looking like she was going to run at any moment.

"Ha, squirrel!" Libby spoke up which at the moment just added to the confusion. But don't ask me to get inside my sister's brain. I'd probably be as confused as you would. Let's just say she has a lot of our mom in her. And I seriously mean a lot, look for our dad in her, it's hard.

Lia looked around and spoke up, taking it as her job to be the sensible one and explain.

"We just got a very serious visit from Bryce. Serious as in he tried to blow our heads off. You see Ikner showed us this tape and there's a man after Madi and her sister. Apparently there was a murder in Madi's family that got covered up and now we're paying the price for it. The man who killed her aunt has just broken out of jail, and he tried to finish the job and wipe out the whole of the Oliver family."

There was a look of fury on Madi's face and Meg put a hand on her shoulder to calm her down.

Madi breathed deeply. "I need to call Amber." We all nodded almost simultaneously. I looked around.

"I've got to go get my phone; I plugged it in to charge earlier." Lia nodded.

"I'll come too." It was very obvious we were doing it to give Madi some privacy but I think she appreciated it.

So we did our slow walk up to my room and sat down on my bed. I looked at Lia nervously, and that look in her eyes made me feel something that I'm really not sure what it was, but I could feel my heart beating slightly faster.

"So where's your phone." She asked me and I laughed.

"In my pocket" She smiled at me too.

"I'm betting Madi appreciates that." It was that look in her eyes that was reminding me of that _slight _crush that I had felt for Lia for a while. But I wasn't going to say anything about it, I didn't want to mess up our friendship.

"Well, it's not really a discomfort for me… I spend enough time up here anyways." I told her and she laughed, her laugh sounding like little bells tinkling. No, we're just friends and that's all. Why was this thing that was on my mind at the moment? It had been bothering me for a while but this was not the time to think about it now. "So why did you come up here with me?" I asked her.

"I don't know, to give Madi some space as well, I suppose. And we haven't really spent any time together for ages."

"No we haven't, we should really change that." I smiled at her…

"Maybe the time when a convicted murderer isn't the best time though" She said, looking slightly nervous.

"Or maybe it's the time to know what's important…" I leant towards Lia, mesmerised by her eyes and was amazed to see her lean towards me as well. Just as we were about to… well _kiss _I suppose I heard a loud thud from downstairs and heard Josh's voice ring out loudly.

We looked at each other and turned away, blushing. It was probably for the best anyway.

We ran downstairs to see Madi having frozen in the middle of the phone call and looks of complete shock on everyone's faces… Eve was pretty much looking like she wanted to disappear.

"What?" Lia asked, looking around the room. Obviously something had happened in those _entire two _minutes we were upstairs. Things seem to be happening really quickly now. Isn't it ironic that everything has been going really slowly for sixteen years of my life and then suddenly it all happens at once?

"Seriously, what happened?" I asked.

"Amber's gone…" Josh said, and I could still see the tears that had obviously just fallen down his face. It wasn't like Josh to get so distressed, so it must have been _really, really _bad. Yeah, so bad I said _really _twice. And Amber was gone? Were we supposed to know what that meant? Was she dead… what she gone forever, or had she simply been, um… _misplaced? _Okay, that sounded really wrong. I can't really say I've misplaced one of my friends. I can't really say I've lost her either. Why am I making jokes now? There is a serious possibility of Amber being… dead.

"I mean, she's been… taken." As Josh said that Lia began to blink rapidly, I can imagine she was trying to comprehend what had just been said. It was hard, I think I knew what it mean, but my mind was searching desperately for another way to put it. Amber had been taken… and there was only one person that could have possibly done that.

"How…." Lia whispered.

Josh stiffened up and forced the words out to explain.

"We got a call from Madi's phone." Madi looked around and searched her pockets.

"That was where that was!" She yelled and we all gave us a glare to shut up and let Josh finish. You could tell if he got interrupted too much he would never be able to finish.

"It was Bryce and one of his friends… Alex. They told her they had Madi and they were going to kill her. But they suggested a trade to save her sister's life. I tried to stop her but…" he turned to look at Madi "She did it believing she was saving you."

That seemed to just about kill Madi. She staggered backwards and sat down slowly.

"I took her to the school only because she said she'd drive herself otherwise. We got there and suddenly all these men appeared. They took her… they pulled her away from me and there was nothing I could do to stop them. I felt so helpless. I couldn't save her." Josh stuttered and I don't think any of us expected him to be able to keep going but I saw something strengthen.

"But I will, we will. I think I know where she will be and I will find her." He shut his eyes and I could feel his determination through the room. I knew he meant it and would put his heart and soul into getting her back. He would not let her die; especially if he thought it was his fault she was there in the first place. And I could tell he was already blaming himself.

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><p><em><strong>Okay so I finally got some Clia into the mix, hope you enjoyed it. And now everybody knows what's going on... but what next? Sometimes I'm not sure even I actually know...<strong>_


	11. Chapter 11

_But I guess it's too late now…_

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><p><em><strong>Amber's POV<strong>_

I could hear Josh screaming at them still replaying in my mind. I could feel my last slips of hope going away from me… I could actually feel myself giving up. That surge of adrenalin coming in to me was now phasing out of me. I was just too tired.

I had given myself up for nothing, absolutely nothing; they never even had Madi in the first place. How could I have possibly been so very stupid? And now I'm stuck in the back of a white van. At first I was curious to why I hadn't been knocked out, or at least bound and gagged, but after pounding on the back and screaming my head off for a long as I could, I realised it, they were taunting me. There was no way I was going to get back out. They could hear me screaming in the front and it probably sounded like music to their ears. So I stopped, I wouldn't give them the satisfaction of it. I just sat down, swaying, thinking, and praying it wasn't real.

I thought about what had got me into this situation. Josh had tried to warn me, he had told me it was a trap. Oh God, _Josh_… it hurt thinking of him now. I had spent so long denying that I had any feeling for him and now that I could admit it I had been ripped away from him. Two kisses, that's all we got. That's all I'm going to get, _two kisses _in my entire lifetime. Or at least I think I got to the point where I was actually hoping that two kisses would be all I got in my entire life-time.

As I thought about death a tear started to slide down my face… no, I couldn't let myself cry. I was going to stay strong until the last moment. I picked my battles but that doesn't mean I never fought them. I am stronger than that and I am going to prove it.

Or at least, I guess… I thought I was… but they were still flowing hard. As much as I wanted to get out of this hell-hole I was also dreading the moment that this van stopped and I had tl face things outside.

No, I am stronger than that.

I am… I promise you that. I can get through this. I'm not the first person to ever be in this position. And I'm not alone; I know Josh will have got back to someone by now. I know someone will care enough about where I am. Why is it my parents had to be out, the moment when I needed them the most? What a shocker it could be for mom and dad, getting home to find their eldest daughter gone and never coming back. I guess that was the whole point of this in the first place.

As the van slid to a halt I straightened my back against the wall and cleared my eyes, determined not to look weak. The doors slid open slowly and Bryce appeared in front of him.

The doors were opened and suddenly the fury at seeing his face was unleashed inside of me and I broke into a fury of swears, and I was yelling at him at the top of my voice. He smiled at me and chuckled.

"Ooh, feisty…" He laughed and beckoned for me to follow him. I stood stubbornly; I was _not _going to walk to my own death. He laughed again at me and drew out his weapon from his pocket pointing it at my face.

"You're not going to kill me." I told him, looking him in the eyes and trying to pretend I wasn't afraid at the moment. "Not now…"

"No… but we could play with you until you beg to die. Or we could make it so you die painfully?" I looked at him incredulously. This was Josh's flesh and blood. This was the brother of the man, I… the man I… No, I couldn't say it. It was too painful to say now that it was gone. How had it taken me so long to realise it that by the time I had it was far too late. "Now move!" He yelled at me, making me start but still making me more determined. I was not going to give in, I had said I picked my battles and I was going to fight this one. I was going to make things as hard as I possibly could.

"I'm not going to do anything you say." I said and he reached forward and grabbed my wrist. It infuriated him that someone defied him. He always had been obnoxious, ever since he was just Josh's mean older brother in middle school. It occurred to me that the whole thing must have been set up. It couldn't be possible that Parker's two children had ended up at the same school as the rest of us. Parker had had this in planning for years.

"You will go, if you know what's good for you."

"Well I guess I don't then." He laughed again, maliciously, something that sent shivers down my spine. Another man stepped out of the van, the man I had seen earlier…

"Bryce, I'm bored… just pick her up and get over yourself. She'll learn some sense; she'll do anything to stop her death in the end."

"You do it then Alex." And in a second I felt myself being man-handled and swung over his shoulder. I resisted my urge to kick and scream like a child throwing a tantrum, no matter how hard it was. I got used to the swaying movement and tried to contain my vomit, not thinking about the situation I was in and instead searching for a way to escape.

I looked around me; trying to recognise my surroundings, but it was completely impossible. I wasn't even sure I was in Hollywood anymore, but the journey didn't seem like it had been that long. It was half an hour at most and I don't think that was long enough to get that far… although it wasn't like they had been obeying the speed limits.

As the man, Alex, I suppose walked I caught a glimpse of the place they were taking me to, it was a large house. Well, it wasn't really a house to say as much, but a mansion. Or at least it was, now it seemed like it had seen better days. I guess it's the best you can do when you're on the run from jail.

Why were these thoughts running through my mind at the moment? I mean, I'm being forced into basically a prison to die, and I'm complaining about the quality of the prison.

The door of the house approached and as we entered I saw a trap door right on my left. He lifted it up slowly and beckoned once more towards me. All I could see was a deep black hole. I don't think you can blame me for not wanting to go down there.

"For heaven's sake just drop her…" Bryce said, god, how I hated him…

But I didn't have time to dwell on it as Alex, doing as he was told dropped me straight down the whole and I screamed, before scolding myself inwardly, I was Jade West's daughter. I was _not _afraid of the dark. I banged my head as I fell, leaving me to groan on the floor. As I turned back around Alex pulled me up so close to his face I was within spitting distance of him.

"Night, night, sweetheart, tomorrow the fun begins." He whispered into my ear and it was very good I was within spitting distance of him, because that was what I did. I spat right into his face and my heart was warmed as I saw the look of pure fury on his face.

"That was _not _a good idea." And somehow I had to think it really wasn't the smartest.

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><p><em><strong>Well that was NOT an easy chapter to write. I realised I had after the previous chapter I didn't have the rest of the plot figured out. So a bit of a well, dramatic filler, I suppose, ignoring the fact that that is almost certainly not a real thing. I hope you enjoyed it never the less. And btw I'm already thinking about what to do nxt as we're reaching the climax of this... so check out my poll on my profile about that... PLEASE, wow I'm immature.<strong>_

_**Sensitivity, Serenity and Insanity**_

_**CANON 24**_

_**Oh and have a very happy New Year because... it's 2012! The world didn't end!**_

_**Apart from all of you American readers... then its still 2011, you're a year behind.**_


	12. Chapter 12

_I'm stuck in the situation of my mother and aunt before me._

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><p><em><strong>Madi's POV<strong>_

I was frozen, just pretty much standing there in shock. My sister was going to die to save me, and she never had to. My mind surged through possibilities, ways she could die. Things that hurt me so very badly, ways that made it so I would swap myself for her in a heartbeat. I guess that was the problem here, our family bond was just too strong. How many times do you say that? Everything was reversed, I suddenly wished my sister was more selfish, more arrogant, and crueller and didn't give a damn about me. But then she just wouldn't be my sister. But she always acted before she thought and in cases like this Amber could be very dense.

She had to be to get herself into a position like this; no I guess I'm not exactly being fair to her. I did have the same too people attempt to _'take' _me and if it wasn't for Meg and Lia, I would be in the exact same situation. So I guess I'm being a hypocrite, eh, who cares, I'm always a hypocrite, everybody is. Find one person who has never done or said anything hypocritical, go on… I dare you.

Okay, back to the subject of my sister having been kidnapped and probably about to be tortured and killed. Well, I'm sorry, but that's depressing. I'd rather think about how I'm an idiot hypocrite some more and it's not very often that I say that. In fact that might be the first time I've thought that… maybe? Okay, putting my mind back into the thing that is actually important at the moment, thinking of plans to help Amber.

I mean maybe we could…

No, but possibly…

No, that's not going to work…

Everybody sat down almost simultaneously and looked at each other, most of us staring at Josh, who was the one who claimed to be able to find her in the first place. His eyes darted from side to side as if he was searching for something else, he looked up and down and pretty much all around. I was almost stalking Josh now wasn't I? But everybody began to look at him as he began to pace along the room, mumbling to himself. We shouldn't just be in this room, doing nothing, not when she might well die. But our brains were going slow as hell because we were so scared out of our minds at the moment.

"Please… no…" he mumbled again, Josh was really starting to get on my nerves at the moment. He had been all fired up and ready to rescue for her, but then he realised he didn't have a clue what to do. So everything slowed down right to the point where I was getting really annoyed.

"There had got to be another way." He groaned and I stared at him… picking myself up again and heading over to him and standing straight in front of him.

"Josh, you're killing me. Spit it out and stop being suck a coward."

"I think we make need to call your… No wait, I have another idea." I didn't even bother to try and figure out what his original idea was although I could already see Meg mulling it over in her brain. She was like that… when she was thinking about something this look would pass over her face so it was obvious she was thinking about something. She also never liked to take what she deemed as the easy way out of a situation. She'd always take the tough route, no matter how very tough it actually was for her. But let's get back to Josh…

"I can go back to them, they'll take me. I can tell them that family comes first over friends, always and that I don't care about any of you." We all looked at him sceptically; he was an actor like the rest of us, but it would be hard to pull that off.

Josh smiled us one more time, "Oh, how much you all doubt me" he spun around and gave him a second to get into character.

"You really thought I cared about you. Maybe I did for about half a second, but it was over a year ago, my family has to come first, over the kids of the people that sent my father to jail." He put a massively creepy smile on his face and he began to look more like Bryce by the second. "And now you are going to pay… they're going to pay for what they did, and you are the perfect target. I know nothing would hurt them more than their precious kids lying dead on the floor." I was actually scared by Josh at the moment, even though I know he was acting.

But suddenly Josh let out a big smile and went completely back to normal. As good an actor as Josh was, I still didn't quite believe it, it scared me, but I knew Bryce wouldn't be scared in the slightest. There was one thing that would pull it off perfectly though… if he said he had got me, and all he wanted was to see Amber safe. That they could torture me all they wanted. We could do what Amber had tried to do for me, but actually succeed, and at the last moment Josh could turn around and hurt them instead of anything happening to me.

"He could take me and request a swap." But I think in about half a second everybody in the room protested, even Eve in the corner let out a little.

"No…"

Josh turned around to me and stared before getting cross quickly. "Don't you Oliver's ever learn? Amber followed that logic, and look where she is at the moment. There is no way I'm going to risk that. I'm the one that got you guys all in to this mess in the first place… if I had just told you guys about Parker and Bryce everything would have been perfectly fine. Or if I'd done something to stop my brother when I still could then none of this would be happening. And nobody else is going to get hurt to try and fix my mistakes."

Suddenly I was angry at him… "Your mistakes, you think this is all about you? This is my fight, the reason that Amber is gone is because of our parents and if anything happens to her I can bet I'll be next, so don't tell me I have nothing to do with it, or to stay out of it. Not to forget this is my sister, my family and my life here… so if I want to risk it I will."

"Seriously, does the entire Oliver family have a death wish? You would die if I took you with me, and I am not going to let that happen." I was about to retort that we couldn't control me and that I would do whatever the hell I wanted, but Meg calmly looked up from her thinking and spoke up for what seemed to be the first time in ages that anyone but Josh and I had actually spoken.

"I have an idea…" She said serenely, but Josh snapped at her.

"I've already got a plan." I waited for a second for Meg to tear him to shreds but surprising that didn't happen. Instead she just switched he gaze from him to me.

"Madi, I need you to call your parents." She told me slowly "They're the ones that dealt with him the first time, and they're the ones that will know how to deal with him and his son." She said and I could see the logic in it. I nodded quickly, but Josh looked even angrier now.

"We don't need them, I have a plan. I have a plan that will work, if you couldn't see I already thought that possibility through and it came out as impossible. I can do this; I can save her, without anybody's help. If I called Beck, he'd know who I am… he'd never trust me near his family again. If I told Jade, the same thing would happen, and then it would get round to your parents and I'd lose all my friends, who are the closest thing to family I have left, you know that I _don't _hate. So I can't do this… we're going to do it my way." His noise level began to rise and rise.

We all exchanged glances round the room, all of us realising that we needed help; we were out of our depth. This was different than what our parents had been involved in, they were dealing with one man with a vendetta, we're still dealing with that man, but now he has his son, his back-up officer and almost a miniature army amassed of people he had contacts with… how he got the money to hire them though I will never know.

Carter took a deep breath and understandably as the only other guy here was arguably the closest to Josh.

"Josh… you're plans not going to work with Madi playing a part. And we can't let Amber, or Madi, or you for crying out loud, die because you're being selfish."

Josh snarled and looked around the room as the rest of us had done, but he found no support in our faces.

"We don't need them. We don't need anybody but ourselves, in fact, I don't need anybody but myself. If I can't get help from you I can do it myself. Because I can't get her back, just to be told I can never see her ever again. Don't you understand that? I don't think I could live with it." He had a little bit of hope in his eyes left, but as he once again registered the looks on our faces as proof we weren't just going to come around. He turned around as stormed out the door, slamming it loudly behind him. This at once triggered us all into action. Eve, as the closest to the door, ran out and screamed down the drive.

"Josh, Josh, come back!" We all stared at her in shock.

"Hey, we might not talk a lot, but I don't want either of them to die." She smiled slightly… and it carried across the rest of us until she finished. "Why didn't any of you think about calling your parents before this?" I think we all mentally smacked ourselves on the head. I guess that wasn't entirely fair, we hadn't all been together and for some of us it had just been paranoia, before we knew it wasn't Lia and Meg had almost been killed and Amber had been kidnapped, which is just about the point we're at now, so stop hitting me! Oh, wait I didn't actually hit myself, I _mentally _smacked myself. I deserve another mental smack for that… ow, that hurt.

"It doesn't matter; she's going to do it now." Lia walked over and handed me her phone, and then the most random thing hit me, Libby hadn't said a word, and it was not normal for Libby not to talk, I glance over and she gave me a small smile, nervously. This thing was so worrying it had stopped Libby from talking; I think I had expressed the tension in the room perfectly.

I picked up Lia's phone and dialled my parent's number very slowly… almost not wanting to press the button to make the call, being scared of what mom and dad would say. But I braced myself and pressed hit, putting it to my ear. One beep… two beeps… three beeps.

And then my dad was on the phone.

"Lia? Is that you?" He asked and suddenly it all got to me, I just wanted to be at home, with all my family around me, no one being about to die and everything to be back to the way it was. So a word slipped out of my mouth that I hadn't used in quite a long time.

"Daddy…?"

_**Uh… another chapter done and dusted for you, hope you liked it. It's quite long as well. I've just hit the 2,000 word mark. I know it started out with me kind of trying to be funny, and I may have failed, but hopefully it ended seriously enough for the seriousness the chapter deserved.**_

_**Anyway, hope to see you soon. And seriously review… I only got three for the last chapter, so anyone that forgot last time.**_

_**REVIEW... and if you do review, I'd like to know what i did wrong in a chapter, and I'm not just fishing for compliments... sometimes there's a major plot hole I miss, or something just doesn't make any sense what-so-ever. If so, let me know, and let me know what I can improve on. But if you remember to**_

_**REVIEW**_

_**I guess I can't really be picky...**_

_**And if you remembered last time, thank you, but you're not excused from reviewing this week.**_

_**Sensitivity, Serenity and Insanity**_

_**CANON 24**_


	13. Chapter 13

_**Okay, thanks for the concrit last chapter, I'll take what you said into account about different people's POVs… unfortunately I still have to write this one from Josh's POV because that's where the stories heading but next chapter, instead of switching back to Madi or Libby's POV like normal I go to Meg's. I have something planned for Eve at the end as well, and I couldn't possibly so Clia without Carter and Lia.**_

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><p><em><em>_But without my father to swoop in and save the day_

_**Josh's POV**_

I stormed into my car and slammed the door sliding into the front seat. I sat there for a while, just hoping that someone would come and find me… that someone would come with me. Eventually I realised that no one was going to come, as you can probably imagine, that thought depressed me, I didn't want to start my car and have to deal with all of this at the moment, as much as I needed to get it off this driveway right now, but I just sat in my car and thought, deciding I needed to be rational, if I was going to get Amber back.

My life had come crashing down around me in the space of an hour. I always had to deal with my family, but I only had a father stuck in jail that I was ashamed of and a brother who had never gone further than drink, a little bit of drugs, and an assault charge. That may sound bad to most people, but it's not bad to me anymore, I would give anything in this world to get that back.

Because right now, I had to deal with a father who was plotting to kill the person who meant the most to me, and that brother who hadn't ever gone beyond an assault charge was planning to do exactly the same but he seemed to be intent on not only killing her but also getting rid of anybody who meant a thing to me.

I'm just so completely in love with my life at the moment.

Oh wow, I think I'm starting to sound like Madi, when did I become so cynical? Oh yeah, about an hour ago when my life fell apart, (haven't I said that already…? I mean you should be seriously listening to all this). I guess I should just take a page out of Libby's book and be happy all the time, wouldn't that be fun! Yay! My life is so very awesome, I mean I know that Amber may be dying and even if she doesn't I may never be able to see her again. But at least the rest of my friends aren't dead, yet… and if everything ends with everybody ending up lying on the floor covered in blood, (which would still be _so _awesome) then I'll still have that fantastic family that killed them in the first place.

I wonder what it would be like to live in Libby's world. I think it might be a little bit pink for my liking, thinking of what her parents were like, I could understand why. The one I never quite understand is Eve though, thinking about her parents she should probably be hyper and happy, and you know what, she's surprisingly normal, she may not actually _be _normal, I don't think any of us are around here, or anywhere near Hollywood Arts was, but she was a lot more normal than she should have been. With Trina and Sinjiin for parents I wouldn't be surprise if she walked around in ten foot heels with a glowing neon sign saying Eve hanging around her and flashing earrings.

I knew I had to start the car, I had to rush off into the distance and confront my family, pull of the hardest acting task I would ever do and convince Amber I completely hated her. At least I knew where she was, or at least I thought I did.

Yes, this is the part of the story where I give you the background that you would really rather not hear and will probably make you so bored you want to kill yourself but needs to go in here because otherwise you might think that someone just decided to make this story up on the spot. And I guess no one would ever believe this rubbish without some horribly tiresome backstory about how when Dad got out for a while we had to go somewhere to hide and, (of course I'm only going off my mom here… I was exactly well, you know, born at that moment in time) we stumbled upon this old house; it was massive but it looked, dead. It looked like it had been abandoned for hundreds of years, it was completely deserted and off the radar, I guess it really was though because as hard as the police looked for my father they never found us… why do I keep saying we and us… I wasn't born, was I? Did I really just ask myself that question?

But I decided I'm not going to be mean and tell you all of that, I'm just going to say I knew a big house the had been stuck in for a couple of months before my dad got caught and narrowly avoiding the death penalty got put back in jail, and it seemed very likely this would be the place he had gone back to.

I drove, hitting the pedal as hard as I possibly could and I felt the adrenalin come back into my body, realising that this was so important to me. The journey took me about twenty minutes. It would have taken me forty at the speed limit, but I wasn't really following the speed limit. If I met any police I got tell them my brother was a murderous kidnapper. How many times have I said that in the last ten minutes? I reckon I'll probably say that at least five more times today, but don't hold me to that. Actually you know what, I don't care!

As my mind wandered, through that half an hour journey my feeling of being utterly depressed and wallowing in self-pity slowly disappeared. It was replaced with a sense of overwhelming anger. By the time I got out of the car and slammed the door behind me, I was completely furious, and it took me a second to remember what the whole point of this plan was.

I turned around and stared up at the house in front of me for a moment, this house had never really been a part of my life. But I had heard what hell it was… no plumbing, no electricity, no heater, or air-conditioning. My brother had lived here for two years of his life, and from what he remembered about it, it was not enjoyable. I looked around and saw that my arrival had most certainly been noticed. It would be hard for it not to be though. I stuck my head up and put this glare on my face, looking around at the guards who were, I don't know, guarding (!) the house. I went from face to face, registering which ones were weak, which ones were strong, which ones that looking incredibly nervous, which ones definitely would hesitate to pound me right into the ground, and slowly but surely my eyes fell on the one person that made my blood boil at the moment. He walked slowly over to the car… his car, which I was still using.

"Brother!" He called and opened out his arms as if he was going to hug me, but I could see the gun hanging obviously from his belt and I knew he was only doing it to display it. Suddenly I was overcome with this urge to pick up mine, which was also originally his, weirdly enough, and to shoot him. To shoot him right in the chest and not to give a shit about what happened to me because of it.

"I hope you've changed your mind about earlier… and I don't have to escort you out of here… in a coffin!"

"Let me see her." I said, not asking, just stating it.

"You really can't come in here and demand anything from me." Suddenly I remembered I was supposed to be in character right now.

"I've been trying to get with a girl for two years and just when I get so close, you decide to kidnap her!"

My brother looked at me shell-shocked, trying to decide if I was being truthful.

"Do really expect me to think that's why you did all that."

"It would be true! I was hoping to get laid tonight, but I guess those plans are completely gone." I winced inside at that comment, it seemed so crude, but I knew I would never say anything like that myself. I wasn't myself at the moment… I was someone that my brother would understand.

I made myself continue… "I was so bloody close as well, just about to get her top off, and then your stupid phone call goes off. And then…" I snarled to add to the effect. "I had to pretend to be so in love with her, just out of the chance that something might go wrong and I might still get to get laid tonight."

"You still might," he smirked at me, sizing me up and down and saying something that would make me furious if I was lying to him. "You'll just have to wait for us to have our go." I so wanted to punch him then, I wanted to punch him so hard he passed out from the pain and cried out. I remember reading somewhere that there is a murderer in all of us, and I know if I could, I would have killed him. But I couldn't.

So instead, I threw my head back and laughed… "Sounds fair, at least I get my turn." Bryce smiled wide, obviously being taken in my act. "And my family comes first over some bitch anyway." It really hurt me to call her that.

"I'm glad to see you came to your senses." I looked at him in a kind of disbelief, not daring to think that it could have possibly worked that easily. He asked my unspoken question. "No, I don't trust you quite yet, but I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt, little brother." He walked off towards to entrance to the house beckoning for me to follow. After a couple of minutes of awkward silence we reached the entrance and turned back to me.

"Welcome home, little brother."

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><p><em><strong>Dramatic! (If I do say so myself) So next time I will go back to Meg's POV and Spirit, I've talked to you about Eve and don't worry I'll do it well.<strong>_

_**The Name Is A Lie, As Is The Cake**_

_**:)**_

_**(Oh yeah, I changed my name, I can now use :) as a completely ligitimate signature)**_


	14. Chapter 14

_**Okay, I just have to remind you that I set Josh and Amber up before I got your concrit, so there will be situations when I have to go back to their POVS, but I stick to my promises and here is something from Meg.**_

__Will my knight in shining armour come?__

_**Meg's POV**_

I sat back, wondering what had gone so wrong with today. This kick back was supposed to be fun, a time to just well, 'kick back'. But instead we were running away from a maniac who was trying to kill two of my best-friends and whose son had already attempted to kill me myself.

I don't think I'll ever really be able to describe that feeling of fear you get when someone points a gun you. But I also got a sense of exhilaration and the desire to kick Bryce's ass. But my sister was pulling me back until we knew it was almost certain death.

It was very, very fun to kick the gun out of Bryce's hand though. And I have no doubt that if they had tried to retaliate then my sister would have blown their balls off. Yes, I know that was crude, but I couldn't resist.

We were all sitting there, waiting for Beck to show up and get us out of this mess. It was actually quite infuriating, having to sit there and do nothing while Amber was in so much trouble. Josh was probably already with her, unless he had managed to get himself shot before he got in. We were just lucky he had told us the address so we had some way to get there. You know Beck hadn't even listened to everything Madi had said. The moment she mentioned Parker he had told us to hand up and stay put, and that he was coming home. It was bad that the fact of us calling in our parent's had completely alienated Josh, who may have just gone off to his death. But still it annoyed me how he had been acting.

He had been acting like he was so righteous, like he was doing this all for Amber and he was always putting Amber first. Well he wasn't… he was just being selfish. He didn't want to take our best shot at saving her because he thought that Beck would hate him. And I slightly hated him for that, it was obvious my idea was the smartest and the most useful, but he had to go ahead and be so reckless. But that was what Josh was like; he wouldn't be Josh without that.

Suddenly my thoughts were interrupted with Beck storming into the room.

"What the hell has that guy done now?" We stared at him, Madi in particular, completely shocked at the language he had used. He looked at us all as well, his eyes darting from Madi who had called him, to Libby, to Lia, Carter, Eve and then me… he spun around repeatedly.

"Where's Amber?" We stared at him blankly

"Where is my daughter?" He almost screamed and then I remember this was the guy who had dealt with Parker the first time. From the article I had looked up on my phone on the way back to our house, I had seen that he had lost his sister to this guy, and he knew was he was capable off.

"Stop looking at me like a bunch of morons." We all gasped again, and Madi looked really hurt, but we all knew why Beck was acting like he was. Beck just wanted to know that his daughter was safe. But the problem was, she wasn't safe, she was in more trouble than any of us had ever been before in our lives.

"She's… Parker kidnapped her." Eve spoke up and Beck spun around to face her, pure rage in his eyes. I thought he was seriously going to swear at her for a second but he regained his calm.

"Please tell me I misheard her." He changed his tone quickly and his words suddenly came out in almost a whisper, so quiet _I_ was in danger of mishearing _him_.

"Nope" I said… "She's gone… and so is Josh." He looked around the room again, obviously not having realised earlier that he was nowhere to be seen. I wasn't sure how he would react to Josh being gone as well. He knew Amber and Josh were close, and I figured he would just be upset that another kid had got in the way and put themselves in danger.

"Josh…, what's he got to do with this? We are talking about Josh Lewis right." He asked, before smacking his palm against his forehead.

"Josh _Lewis, _how could I be such an idiot?" He said, talking more to himself than anybody else. "Tell me he's not…" He turned back to the rest of us.

"Tell me there is absolutely no connection from him to Parker Lewis."

"We can't do that." Carter said.

This time Beck actually swore, with language that was _not _repeatable. So as much as I am tempted to I know I would be stopped from telling the rest of the story. And I only managed to just get hold of it in the first place. Someone has to stop Josh, Amber, Madi and Libby hogging the entire spotlight the entire time.

"Okay, I need to go; I need to remind Parker that the last time he tried to mess with the people I love, it was him that got hurt, not me."

"You're not just going to go." Madi looked seriously hurt.

"Of course I am. You didn't just expect me to let my daughter die did you?"

"No, but I expected you to not spend two minutes without me and then leave."

"I can't take you with me." Beck argued with his remaining daughter.

"Yes, of course you can! This is my fight." Madi's voice levels rose.

"No, it's not, it's mine. And I will do whatever I can to keep you out of this."

"It's a bit too late for that."

"We are done talking about this." And as suddenly as he entered he was gone, slamming the door behind him loudly. We all exchanged glances, especially me and Lia, this definitely hadn't been our fight to begin with, but it was our fight now. We had been threatened, tormented, had a gun pointed at our heads, not to mention Lia had to point a gun at someone else's head, and to top it all it was our best-friend who was in trouble. This by connection meant we were too, I wasn't quite as close to Amber as I was with Madi, considering that Madi and I were together in almost every class, but seriously, mess with any of my friends, and you have to deal with me.

"There is no way we are staying here is there?" My sister smiled slyly.

"Nope" I perked up and Madi turned to us, hope and confusion mixed on her face. I could see how nervous she was about going against her dad, especially at the moment. But I could also see that rebellious spark in her eyes which was why I was such good friends with her in the first place.

"So whose car are we taking? Mine I suppose." Thank God for Carter. What would we do without our driver?

"So are we all agreed, we need to finish what we started…"

"Actually…" Eve started up, but with one look at all of our faces she shut up…

"But can I drive?" And that was Libby from the corner off the room, and she looked like she had just been thinking for the last half an hour. She certainly hadn't been talking though.

"No!" We all shouted at her.

She backed away sheepishly… and the Eve decided to perk up again, it made me feel good to see my little shy cousin come out of her shell. I actually had no idea where she got it from in the first place, looking at her parent's it really was quite hard to tell.

"I think I would rather stay alive through the car ride…" We all laughed and headed for the door, me at the end, and you know Eve seemed really happy that she had made them laugh.

For a moment, before I left the house, I felt the seriousness kick in, and as I switched off the lights, and watched the house plunge right into darkness, and I knew that there was a good chance that not all of us would ever see this house again.

_**Okay, hope your happy GG… next up Lia's POV… and some more Clia for you guy's.**_

_**Enjoy :D**_

_**The Name Is A Lie, As Is The Cake**_


	15. Chapter 15

__Or am I going to die alone on my own?__

_**Lia's POV**_

We sat there slightly awkwardly in the car, not knowing what the hell we had just done, if we had massively screwed up, if we going to save Amber's life, if we should have just waited back at the house. But I think all of us knew very well there was no way we were going to stay back at the house.

It wasn't that we didn't trust Beck… but if he had done the job properly the first time we wouldn't be in this mess! And what I personally took offense at was being told that I wasn't in this. That this was his fight and we were just stuck on the side-lines.

Because I have never heard a more blatant lie in my entire life; I mean, us, silent observers? No way in hell was that true.

We were well and truly in this with the rest of them. I glanced over to Carter who was currently driving the car. I still couldn't believe what had… almost happened upstairs, and I couldn't help wishing that it had happened. I had never told Carter how I felt about him, and now it might be too late. I might die before he kissed me.

At least, if I told him, I would be able to die easily. There would be an amazing escape opportunity to death. I glanced back at him guiltily, his eyes completely fixed on the road ahead. The car had been completely silent for the last thirty minutes, since Libby had asked to drive just as we left the house. I was overcome with an urge to kiss him, right then and there, but it wasn't possible. We were in a crowded car, and he was driving. This wasn't the time to have unrealistic fantasies. And I didn't even know how he felt about me. He probably thought about me as nothing more than a friend.

One of my first memories is of Carter Shapiro. Cat used to bring him and Libby over and we would play on the floor. I remember being jealous of how close Libby and him were. He would get jealous of how close Libby and I got; when we were little we were almost inseparable. Libby, me and Amber that is… and we were all sitting down playing pat-a-cake, when Carter came up from behind me with Robbie's old super strength clue (don't ask me why Robbie had super strength clue) And he splattered it all over my hair. I cried so hard, and nothing could calm me down. And then Libby and Amber started to cry as well, I remember Carter looking at me, blinking as I began to cry and then he sprayed the glue all over his hair as well.

The memory still makes me happy. Because Carter is still that little boy that would put glue all over his hair to make me smile, and even though he's grown up he hasn't become a jerk. He managed to stay pure.

"We're almost here…" He said, sliding his head around slightly, and glancing around the car, his eyes stopped as they reached mine and I realised that I was still staring at him. I flushed bright red as I thought about what I had just been thinking. I stared down at my lap to avoid his gaze, biting my lip slightly.

"Stop here!" Meg yelled and we all turned to stare at her.

"We can't stop at the actual house! Are you stupid? They'd catch us and we'd be dead in instants. Pull over in that dirt path." Meg ordered Carter and he complied, parking us right next to Beck's car, which I could only take as a good sign.

Meg, Madi, Eve and Libby (who I still couldn't believe had actually managed to keep her mouth firmly closed) slid out of the car, slowly, and Madi gave us a warning as she got out.

"We have to do this perfectly now, we cannot afford to make mistakes. We cannot afford to get ourselves into the same situation as Amber is in right now. We cannot rely on Josh or my father to bail us out if we mess up."

And knowing us, the chances of us messing up were very high. Suddenly the pressure kicked in and we all knew it was life and death here. But it was just Carter and me in the car now and slowly our gaze shifted over to each other.

And then his lips were on top of mine.

It was heaven… it was what I had dreamed of. I could feel the electricity going through me, and I felt like this was where I was always meant to be, with him. I knew in a second what true happiness felt like. It felt like a kiss from Carter Shapiro. Because in that moment I felt truly complete, and I felt like if I died then I would die happy.

Slowly he broke off and shifted back over to his side of the car. The breath that I didn't even realise I had been holding flowed back into my lungs.

"I don't know why I did that…" Carter said nervously, his eyes meeting mine with a shy smile on his face.

"I'm so glad you did." The smile on his face grew and grew, until he was full on beeping at me.

"You mean…" he stuttered, "You like me too?" I nodded, a lot, full of disbelief at what had just happened.

"Yeah… I just never dreamed that you would like me too." I said, so unbelievably happy in that moment. Because in that moment I felt like I was literally going to float up into the air. He liked me!

"Why on earth would anybody like anyone else while you were around?" Carter asked and he leant in over the barrier between the seats to kiss me again but Madi opened the door.

"Get out of this car!" She looked at me and this little smile appeared on her face as her eyes darted from one of us to the other. "We can do this later!" That was assuming there was a later… and at the moment nothing was certain for us.

But we slowly got out of the car and crept along the road until we reached the back of a hedge.

"Come on, we need to climb over it one at a time." So we slowly crawled up and over, boosting each other up. My mind was still buzzing inside over what had happened, but I was trying to think. I was trying to remember that Amber was in very serious trouble. Everybody landed silently on the other side of the hedge. But as I managed to go over I caught my leg on a twig and infuriatingly, I fell with a thump to the floor and let out a cry.

Everybody glared at me as I fell and despite Madi's "Shh…" I could hear guards coming running.

Shit, I had just messed everything up hadn't I?

_**First of all, I'm really sorry that was so short, but I did put a Clia kiss in there for you guys.**_

_**And I would just like to say 'hi' to Derek (GG's boyfriend), I know I don't actually know you, but GG tlks about you so much I feel like I do. And you should so get an account on Fanfiction.**_

_**And I have finally now done thing I should have always done at the very beginning and written a plan for the story. To be honest, at the start I couldn't be that bothered… but now I have! And I am happy to let you know in the rest of this story… Lia has one POV, Carter has one, Eve has two, Meg has one, Josh has two (SORRY!), Amber has one, (Sorry again!), and then Libby narrates the epilogue. Sorry Madi, I ran out of chapters!**_


	16. Chapter 16

_Life never turns out how we planned it._

_**Amber's POV**_

I stared at the wall, watching the time pass, and wondering how I ended up in this place. I wondered if I was ever going to see the outside of this again. I wondered if I was ever going to see my family again, and I wondered if I was ever going to see friends, who were almost my family as well, again.

I wondered if I was ever going to be able to see Lia act on that 'tiny crush' on Carter, as she liked to call it. I wondered if I was ever going to be able to see Eve talk, and to come out of her shell around someone other than their cousins. I wondered if I was going ever going to be an aunt or if… if I was ever going to be a mother. I wondered if I was ever going to walk down the aisle. I wondered so many things that were on replay in my head. I wondered until I could wonder no more, so I looked back and I thought about my past.

I mean, I had nothing else to do.

I looked back to my earliest memories… Libby, Carter, Lia and I playing on the floor. I thought back to when my baby sister came home, I hated her. I hated having to share my mother, and my father who wasn't even home that often anyway. But now, I wouldn't trade my baby sister for anything else in the world. I'm glad that it was me here rather than her.

I thought back to my first day of school, my hair tied in pigtails, until Mom saw me and decided I looked like an idiot. I remembered my Hollywood Arts audition, when I was freaking out for weeks… I remember dying my hair for the first time, getting my little purple streaks in there and Dad telling me I looked just like my mother. I remember my first piercing and how loud I screamed. Mom looked at me and just said…

"Man, I hate children… Kidding…" With this sly little look on her face, but I knew it was fine, I had no doubt Mom loved me.

In that room I remembered my life, going through my memories systematically, the first time I got in trouble, the first time I met a boy I liked, the first time I snuck out, the first time I got grounded (I wonder how those two are linked…), the first time I met a guy I really cared about, the first time I loved and lost… that was only a few hours ago. You could almost say my life was flashing before my eyes, but really, _really_ slowly. So not exactly flashing, I guess gliding maybe… my life was gliding before my eyes. Okay, that sucks, moving on.

So I stared at that brick wall for what felt like hours, ignoring my building thirst and hunger. It wouldn't do me any good to give in to it anyway, I wanted to stay strong as I went down, show no weakness and all that.

I counted the bricks on that wall ahead of me. There were exactly two hundred and eighty two. I double checked that. So far it looked like I would die of boredom before I died of anything else. Eventually though, I managed to sleep, and actually has a sweet dream, where everything was going well and all these thoughts came back to me and kind of happened at once. I was the five year old flower-girl at Madi's wedding, and then I went outside and started kissing Josh, but we were seventeen. And it was very confusing, not to mention I don't actually remember half of it.

A loud noise woke me from my slumber.

"Do you expect us to trust you to do it?" I heard a yell down the corridor that I recognised as Bryce's voice.

"I expect you to give me a chance!" I heard the reply, and the voice sounded like… it sounded like… no, it couldn't be.

"Yeah, that's likely. Parker wants this job done, and he wants it done well, so that means I can't leave either of you two idiots to do it. We all know your only here because you're related to him." I think that was the other guy I saw earlier, Alex?

"You say that again to my face!"

"Oi idiot! You're only here because this is your Daddy's operation." I heard a loud smack and then the door to the room I had been chucked in what seemed like forever ago was thrust open. I pressed my back against the wall and shielded my eyes from the bright light that had entered; my eyes had got accustomed to the darkness.

I saw Parker and Bryce standing there and I felt the urge to leap onto them and strangle them, enjoying every second of it until I felt the life fade from their body, to poison them and to watch them cry out in pain. I felt a feeling I had never had before, I felt eager for revenge.

They jumped down into the cellar and looked at me.

"Are you going to move this time, or are we going to have to carry you again?" Alex said with a cruel grin in his eyes and I knew if he did have to pick me up, it wouldn't be comfortable.

I crossed my arms and sat back against the wall.

"Suit yourself." He shrugged, as if he didn't actually care that much either way. He leant down near me and I shoved him, trying to keep him off. He laughed at first but then I managed to get him in the face and while Bryce fell over laughing Alex got this really angry look. He looked just about ready to slap me.

Suddenly I heard a voice at the back of the room.

"Don't hurt her." I looked past the two people blocking my view to a figure at the end. _Josh_…

And suddenly all my feelings happened at once, I had thought I would never see him again, so I felt insanely happy about him actually being here, but then again my mind was coming to only one conclusion about why this was happening, and that was… that this was his plan all along. He had set me up, he had told me he loved me so I would do all of it. He had tried to persuade me not to go, while knowing that would only make me more determined, he had driven me, he had made sure they knew where I was.

I felt betrayed, I felt angry, I felt cheated.

I didn't know what exactly I felt but suddenly I launched myself across the room, running to try and claw his face off. He was no longer the sweet kid I had known since the start of HA… but now he was the jerk who I really thought cared about me, who I was beginning to think I was truly in love with, who turned around and stabbed me right in the back. He didn't give a shit about me, I realised, the cold hard truth setting in. If he cared about me at all he would do something. I would have died to save him, even if we weren't anything more than friends I would still have given it up for him.

I was running across the room, desperately trying to reach him when I felt strong arms around my waist and I was swung over a shoulder again, much to my extreme annoyance.

"Don't you dare!" I screamed "let me hit him!"

"As much as I wish I could, Parker wants to see you." I gulped, and tried harder to get back on the floor, to get anywhere away from Alex.

I hit him over and over but I could feel him laughing at me, and I knew I should have just stayed where I was… but I was burning with rage and I still wanted to completely murder him.

For the first time in I don't know how long, I wished that he was here in my place instead of myself.

* * *

><p><em><strong>I know I should have made this longer, there was originally some extra stuff but I wouldn't be able to get it all in and I didn't just want to stop in the middle of it.<strong>_

_**It's also probably not my best, it wasn't exactly easy to get out.**_

_**The Name Is A Lie, As Is The Cake**_

_**:)**_


	17. Chapter 17

_But still we cling on to the remainders of it._

**Carter's POV**

It all came crashing down and happening at once. I had kissed the girl of my dreams and had her kiss me back, not shove me off and cry out in disgust. So right now, this feeling I had was something I imagined being high felt like, not that I could speak from actual experience, thankfully. We were already in enough mess at the moment that adding things like that would be pure stupidity, and that was something we couldn't afford to be at the moment.

I eased myself over the hedge carefully, landing lightly on the ground. We couldn't make a noise, especially when this was such a how to say it… delicate operation. If we messed up now, I didn't know what we would do. As those thoughts ran through my head I heard a thump and I span around towards it. My mouth dropped in horror as I saw Lia land on the ground with a loud noise and her ear-piercing scream.

Worry raged through me... had something happened to her? I knew it was just a fall but I was on my edge... suddenly thoughts of her death ran through my mind, and what I would do without her. I knew she couldn't have died from that but there was still a fairly major chance that she would die tonight. I didn't think I'd be able to bear if it she did. I think I would die myself if I lost Lia... or at least I would make those who did it pay.

I could hear voices in the back ground, and the footsteps were getting louder and louder as we heard them approaching.

I tried to push through the group of people that had just landed, namely my friends. Madi gave me that look which said, 'Don't even try it; there is nothing you can do.' I knew I couldn't reach her, and by her I think it is pretty obvious who I mean. I looked around helplessly and I saw Meg doing the same in front of me.

On an impulse, I don't actually know what I was thinking… but I saw Meg look at me and I saw helpless-ness in her eyes. I saw Lia in them, and I saw the girl who was younger than the rest of us being forced into this adventure, apart from Madi, that is. My eyes locked onto the hedge where there was a little hole at the bottom, one that looked only just big enough for a person to fit in. It would have to be a person smaller than Josh or I, but Meg looked about the right size.

I shoved her to the ground quickly and she looked up at me, completely confused. I gestured across slightly and she grinned, despite everything that was happening and a tiny little slyness creeped onto her face. She rolled over, fitting snugly into that gap. The next second Parker's men were upon us. I saw them head for me first as the only guy among all these girls, but it wasn't as if I was going to try and fight them. Not only was I nowhere near strong enough and I would get beaten up, it would accomplish nothing, there were too many of them.

It would be stupidity to the point of death. All I could do was thank God that at least Meg managed to get away, someone would know what happened and now there was no way Bryce or Parker would manage to get off Scott free. The armoured guards surrounding us and all of us took a step back, apart from Lia who was still lying sprawled across the floor. I felt my own arm being bent up against my back as they separated us to prevent the confrontation that was not going to happen.

Even Madi just looked tired; too tired to fight it any longer and I think she almost just wanted all of this to be over. It had been a long night, and that wave of adrenaline we had all got when we decided that we were bravely and… ever so cleverly I might add, going to rescue Amber was slowly disappearing into thin air. It's only replacement was tiredness and despair.

I tried to make my way over to Lia, but the guard kept me going straight and narrow. Is it just me, or does that seem like a bit of a strange phrase at the moment, the guard himself probably hadn't been going straight and narrow since he was ten years old? His path was as wavy and wide as could be. But he was keeping me walking like that, with little to no personal space as we went.

They led us around this house… and it really wasn't a house, it was massive. It was like a mansion, but a very old one, worn down and broken. It would probably be almost worthless these days but once would have been very expensive. It was dark damp and creepy and behind me I would hear my sister whimpering.

That made me angry.

I needed to protect my younger twin. No one was allowed to scare her but me, and even I didn't do that very often. It wasn't fair that she had been put through this, I'm not sure she even completely understood what was going on. But sometimes Libby did surprise you… she was random and weird but she was not stupid. She could be stronger than she looked and I was proud of that, but I wasn't sure she was strong enough to get through tonight. I tried to swivel my head around to catch a glimpse but due to the angle I was at I couldn't. Eventually we drew to a big door and I could hear major shouting behind it…

It sounded like… Beck!

Beck had managed to get much further than we had, as we could have very easily predicted that he would. The question came back up in my mind… why on earth had we decided to do this?

"Shall we go in?" The gruff voice of one of the shoulders called out, and I felt the one holding me give a swift nod.

The doors swung open and a sight of Beck and the man I would presume to be Parker was unveiled. I heard Madi whisper under her breath…

"Dad" But other than that we all stayed deathly quiet, worried that if we made a noise we would put Beck off and he would lose this fight. They both had a gun aimed at each other and it looked like they were just wondering who would get up the guts to go first. Eventually Parker flung his gun away and leaped on Beck as it began to evolve into a full of fist fight.

It was interrupted when from behind me I heard a massive scream, which I think came from Madi.

Beck's head turned to the side quickly and his eyes filled with fear as he saw his other daughter at Parker's mercy… Parker just threw back his head and laughed but Beck snapped back into action and ran for his gun across the room. At that second though, the sound of a gun shot rang out and Beck collapsed in pain.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Aah! Why are they so short these days?<strong>_

_**Anyway, sorry there wasn't more Clia in that, but you'll probably get some more, even though I think that was the last POV of Carter. And don't worry, Eve will get some time soon.**_

_**PS. Please check out the poll on my site for the title of my new Bat story… the summary is also on my profile.**_

_**The Name Is A Lie, As Is The Cake**_

_**:)**_


	18. Chapter 18

_They say it's like youth. You never know what you have until it's gone._

_**Eve's POV**_

We entered the room, and I think I could feel the terror circulating around the room. And yes, to all of you who are no doubt wondering, it is me… finally. But in fact I don't really know how I'm talking to you at all. Maybe I'm not even talking to you at all, or perhaps you're just going mad and thinking that I'm speaking to you. I'm sure my cousins have done that several times.

But you don't have any idea what I'm talking about or if you do, I'm pretty sure you're completely wrong. But it really doesn't surprise me that I haven't said anything at all until now. It's kind of in my personality not to speak until it's too late. I mean, this was such a stupid idea, it was bordering on idiotic… in fact it's moronic. But I knew I couldn't say anything or they'd just go without me, and I figured there needed to be somebody sensible in this place. I don't really matter around these people. I'm pretty sure they wouldn't notice if I just went and disappeared. I didn't even really know what I was doing here. Amber and Madi weren't really my friends; I didn't know Beck and my parents definitely didn't associate with Jade. But I couldn't really stand back and watch somebody, anybody, die.

And my cousins were here, who I guess would be one of the closest friends I had in this school. Is that sad, that's sad isn't it? But sometimes I think that I'm sad… and then I get depressed, which makes me quite literally sad. But it was fun being in something and being part of the team, even if it did end the way it did.

A scream…

A look…

A gunshot… and then Beck was falling over, clutching his leg. My eyes and I think everybody else in the room's eyes followed the sound of the gunshot to three men just standing there, holding a young girl who was struggling violently. It didn't take a genius to work out who they were, you could make out Josh, Bryce and Alex's figures faintly, all three of them were holding a gun so there was no way you could tell which one it came from. And although we all knew that there was no way it could have come from Josh considering he was acting and even I knew there was no way he would ever dare to hurt anybody close to Amber. Amber and Beck didn't know any of this though.

Parker spun his head around and laughed at the sight of his sons with guns. It was a truly frightening thing to see him standing over Beck, laughing at his wounded enemy and not caring about who lived or died, as long as he got his revenge. And it did seem at the moment like he was almost certain to get his revenge, the only person that wasn't either helpless or on Parker's side was Josh and he was heavily outnumbered. Me, Madi, Lia, Libby, Carter and Meg were pretty much helpless. Wait a second, I moved my head as much to the side as I possibly could but I couldn't see Meg anywhere in sight. That gave me a sense of relief, knowing that at least one of my family members was safe.

"So you've finally lost then Beck. How does that feel? How does it feel knowing that I'm going to take away everything that you could hold dear? And after I kill your daughters and their friends, which incidentally makes you responsible for the death of your best friend's children as well, I'm going to go after your wife and do what I didn't have time to do the first time."

Parker took one step closer to Beck and pressed on his leg. Beck screamed in pain, and there was so much rage in that scream that I was seriously scared what would happen if he was in a condition to move, or to attack Parker the way he so obviously wanted to.

"You sick bastard!" He screamed at him and fought to get up through his gun wound.

"Why thank you Beck, thank you so much." He said, not even sarcastically in the slightest. "I've spent most of my life waiting for this moment. And before that I was thinking about how to stop you squealing to the police about me. And guess what, before that I was your best friend. Do you remember that Beckett? Me and you, BFFs… I wonder if that means that if I just leave these friends alone long enough they'll do that job for me."

"When are you going to be happy, you always destroyed my life once? I still have nightmares of that night."

"When am I going to be happy?" Parker snarled, increasing the pressure on Beck's leg and making him scream out in pain again. "When you and everybody you ever loved is dead. So let's get started shall we?" He finally acknowledged our presence in the room and gestured to the guards, and I really wish he hadn't.

"Line them up" He snarled and increased the pressure a little more, Beck gritted his teeth but resisted screaming one more time, refusing to give Parker the satisfaction anymore.

The men dropped us down and forced us onto our knees. I flinched at how roughly we were treated, and glanced up at the man who forced me down there. The sight of the smile on his face echoing Parker's made me have to fight hard to stop that nervous twitch I had developed over the years. My Mom had tried to rid me of it, but that failed. She even tried to scare it out of me. All she managed to do was well and truly scare my Dad.

I think I saw my life flash before my eyes because I knew what was going to happen. One of us was going to leave here in a body bag. I couldn't tell which one of us it was, but not all of us would make it out alive.

We had made our own decision when we came here to try and save Amber. And although my decision may mean I never get to walk out of this place, I don't regret it. It may have been a stupid idea, but at least we tried. And if the last thing we do is save Amber and make sure that sick bastard never sees the light of day then I will die happy. I will have no regrets in my life… because I will have died fighting for something important, and there are a hell of a lot of worse ways to die.

You would not have expected Eve Van Cleef to say that. Before today I would have probably run away from something like this, but now I wasn't going to. I was a different person when I woke up this morning than I am now. This morning I was hoping to get through this day without too much fuss. That plan failed.

I didn't really have a new plan. I didn't really know what would happen next, and although I knew that I would never be anybody like Meg or Madi, or anyone of this group, but I wasn't going back to that old Eve that I had woke up as. I may not have made a drastic change on the outside, but I sure had on the inside.

_**I really hope that was okay, I'm not sure I did Eve quite right, but at least she got a POV… finally! And she gets the next chapter too. Just to let you know, there will be twenty-three chapters in this story and then an epilogue so we're almost done now. But if you don't review I'll be really mean and never post the last chapter.**_

_**Muhahahahahah**_

_**The Name Is A Lie, As Is The Cake**_

_**:)**_


	19. Chapter 19

_And I'm scared; I'm scared mine's gone._

_**Eve's POV**_

So there we were lined up, and waiting to find out which one of us would be the first person to die. I probably don't need to tell you this but that is not a pleasant feeling, wondering if it will be you, your family or your new found friends to go. I knew I should be hoping it was me, but there was that little traitorous instinct inside of me praying to save myself.

Once again in my life I was too scared to do something that needed to be done. In thought that would end now, but although I may not have been that same Eve I was still Eve. And I was not exactly brave, but maybe I could be selfless.

Parker smiled creepily one more times and gestured to his sons.

"As much as I'd love to do this myself, I have to give credit where credit is due. Boys, take your pick."

Bryce stepped out of the shadows, and right now, how I hated that guy. I had never met him before this morning and he had already managed to ruin our lives. Now he was quite possibly going to end it. He put out his hand to stop Alex and Josh who were attempting to follow him.

"I'll take this one bro." He told his little brother, while completely ignoring the other eager man. He cocked his gun with a glance at Parker who nodded.

He slowly walked past the line, humming a little underneath his breath. I held mine in, knowing that this was pretty much what it would all come down to. If nothing stopped this one of us would end up dead within a minute. Beck struggled again under the weight of his tormenters as Bryce hovered by Madi.

"Not that one, I was planning on saving those two for last." By those two it was pretty much obvious he was referring to Amber and Madi. I could see very well why Parker had decided to leave them. It would break Beck completely to see his best friends kids, who were almost like his children die in front of him and then to watch his own flesh and blood get shot.

He had already seen that at the hands of Parker. They had said this thing had all started when Beck's sister had been shot. The first Jade Oliver there was. It was kind of creepy having their mother and their aunts with the exact same name. But Beck had been through enough in his life, why did it have to happen again?

Actually I knew the answer, because Beck had the misfortune to have originally been friends with a maniac, and that was going to haunt him for the rest of his life, which right now was looking like it would be too much longer.

"Then there's only really one choice, isn't there?" Bryce asked as he stopped in front of my cousin, Lia. She trembled and glanced either side for Carter. Bryce leaned down close to her and stroked her hair, she pulled away as far as she possibly could but she just couldn't yet away.

"Don't you dare, Lewis." I heard Carter scream and guy who out of all of us was most likely to be the calm one in a crisis was struggling as hard as he possibly could, despite the fact he knew it wouldn't do anything.

"What are you going to do about it then, _Shapiro?"_ Bryce said, his smile only increasing, as he mocked Carter's use of his last name. "I don't want anything from you that would mean anything. Her, however…" Lia pulled away one more time and Carter screamed.

"I'm going to kill you! If you don't stop right now I am going to murder you and laugh at the broken remains of your body." I didn't doubt it in the slightest, considering how he looked right now. There was that murderous look in his eyes and seemed so furiously sure he was not going to lose the girl he loved.

I stretched my hand out to Lia, hoping to give her some reassurance. Lia clutched it for dear life and Bryce looked at it, in almost disbelief. We still held on, trying to keep calm, and it was fairly obvious from the amount she was squeezing it that she really needed it. We were family after all, and I was going to be with her to the end, no matter what anybody else said.

Bryce looked at it one more time, and then leaned it to Lia again.

"Oh, how cute! But that's not going to save you." He grinned maliciously. "I know something that would though…" He let his eyes begin to roam her body, focusing on an area which made it totally impossible to mistake what he meant.

Carter called out again.

"I am going to…"

"Somebody shut him up!" And then a hand was covering Carter's mouth and all you could hear was a very angry murmuring through a sweaty, stinky hand.

"You know what, I would rather die…" Lia screamed, getting the confidence and the anger from somewhere. Bryce took a second to comprehend what she had just said as Lia's anger burned up on her face.

"What did you just say to me? You're going to regret that!" Lia, did something so unlike Lia in that moment. She leant her head back a little bit more and she spat… she spat in Bryce's face.

"I. Would. Rather. Die." She snarled… "Did you hear it that time?"

"That can be arranged." Bryce took a step back and held his gun pointing at her. From across the room I could see Josh decide it was finally time to take action and he began sprinting across the room to desperately try and reach him.

I made a split second decision too.

Josh leaped across and knocked Bryce to the floor as I pushed with all my might to get in front of Lia, taking my guard completely by surprise.

_Two _gun shots rang across the room and Lia was staring at me open mouthed.

Bryce's bullet soared across the room, hitting a wall, but Parker, Parker was standing right behind him, his foot still keeping Beck pushed down on the ground and his gun had fired a bullet too.

I looked down at my shirt and saw the red streaming through.

Suddenly the pain of having just been shot hit me and the whole world slowly started to disappear before my eyes.

I couldn't believe it, I had done it. I had saved Lia.

"Eve!" She screamed and the guards subconsciously took a step back from us.

"Not what I expected but okay." Parker's voice just reached my ears, through a pounding in my head.

I could hear a more feminine voice make a threat as well, and another gunshot… but it didn't really matter as a sudden realisation came through to me.

I forced a smile onto my face, and I saw a tear start to fall down Lia's face. Suddenly everyone was surrounding me, Lia, Carter, Libby and even Meg were staring at my face.

"No, no, no, no! Come back! This is not fair! I got here, I shot him, I managed to save the day!" Meg was screaming and I could barely focus on her actual face anymore, my window of vision was getting much smaller by the second.

"Eve Casablanca Van Cleef, don't you dare die on us!" Libby called and I was flattered that she actually cared, but there was nothing I could do.

"I'm going to die now, aren't I?" I whispered, and it was true. I was going, almost gone.

And everything around me disappeared into nothing-ness.

So to answer that question you undoubtedly have. I don't know where I am. I don't know how I'm talking, and no, I am never coming back. But don't feel sad for me, I knew exactly what I was doing, and I wanted to.

I have never regretted for one second my decision and given the same choice over I would do exactly the same thing. Although maybe I would stop Amber getting herself into that situation in the first place.

But other than that… I wouldn't change a thing.

_**Poor Eve, you know that's the first character death I have ever written and I'm not sure I did it well enough. But the story isn't over yet. Maybe others will join her in the grave. **_

_**Review to find out!**_

_**The Name Is A Lie, As Is The Cake**_

_**:)**_

_**_**(And please read my new story... The Reaper Takes It All, please. :) ... ... )**_**_


	20. Chapter 20

_I'm terrified it's never coming back._

_**Meg's POV**_

I was amazed to see how empty this place was on my way in. It seemed like all of them seemed to be somewhere else, having a party or something. I just pretty much walked through it all. But I had a feeling there was something going on in this place.

Guess what, I was right.

I burst open the doors, with a gun that I managed to get off one of the remaining guards fully loaded, (never underestimate the power of a pretty face and amateur karate, especially against somebody way past their prime.) and I was prepared to shoot Parker.

I knew I was going to do it, and I wasn't going to be scared, because there was nothing to be scared off. Parker wouldn't be able to do anything and it was either shoot him or die. I didn't mean to shoot to kill; I just meant to stop him doing anything else.

But I opened the door and there he was, shooting a gun. I saw the bullet fly through the air and headed right towards my older sister and my cousin.

I just snapped at that point… He may have basically kidnapped all of us, dragged us into an abandoned warehouse, imprisoned my friends, tormented us all, but that was a far as he was allowed to go. He was not allowed to hurt my family.

Or I was going to hurt him, very badly… and I did. I saw my cousin collapse in pain on the ground, with bullet right through her chest and I was not going to allow him to do that, so I fired, and instead of going for somewhere that would simply incapacitate him, I went for the head. It's actually a miracle I managed to shoot it in the first place, considering I can barely use a gun despite Grandpa's efforts to teach me.

I always told him there would be no point.

But I shot him in the head, and there was a kind of sick satisfaction about seeing him hall down, completely dead. I didn't stop to double check this though, because I ran as fast as I could over to Eve, praying that the red stain across her shirt was just ketchup. Unfortunately I knew it wasn't though.

I dropped by her body as shook her, screaming.

"No, no, no, no! Come back! This is not fair! I got here, I shot him, I managed to save the day!" It really wasn't fair, we were supposed to get our happy ending now, it was supposed to become magical and no one was supposed to die. We knew that we might not all make it out of this alive, but why did it have to be Eve that went, she barely had anything to do with this. She wasn't even really friends with either Amber or Madi, nor did Trina or Sinjiin have anything to do with Beck and Jade… except for Sinjiin's weird little crush that we've heard about in the old stories and that's not a reason to die.

So why was that fair?

"Eve Casablanca Van Cleef, don't you dare die on us!" Libby screamed at Eve and I silently seconded the opinion in my head.

"I'm going to die now, aren't I?" She smiled and slowly shut her eyes. She wasn't here anymore to hear us plead with her not to go.

Carter slowly put his finger her neck, to feel her pulse.

"She's gone." He said and Lia collapsed on his shoulder, crying her eyes out. Carter slowly turned and kissed her.

"It'll be okay." Despite what was happening I had to raise my eyebrows at the newly formed couple which nobody had ever heard about before. They'd be cute together though, they always had been, and it did sometimes seem that everybody was aware of their _little _crush except for the other person.

And at least something good came out of today. It wasn't all bad. It turned around to survey the scene. Parker was dead, he was dead and he was never ever going to come back. There was no way our kids were going to have the same problem. Our two novella story did not need a sequel.

Josh had tackled Bryce to the ground as well so he was out of the picture. We didn't need to worry about the Lewis family. Josh slowly let him up, while keeping his arms stuck behind his back.

"Don't even think about it, _big brother."_ He snarled, mimicking how Bryce called him his little brother anytime he wanted to patronise him. He slowly walked right over to us.

"Is she okay?" I shook my head, my lip trembling.

"She's dead." Josh's face fell in disappointment.

"Shit!" He snarled with anger, taking another look at Bryce, his lip curling in utter disgust "Shit! This was not supposed to happen. I stopped him!"

"Now you know how that feels." I replied, because I stopped him too, but it didn't make any difference.

"You mean, we got one?" Bryce smiled and I stared, this really was not an intelligent guy. I heard footsteps behind me and I looked behind me. Libby was standing up as she walked over to Bryce.

"Josh? Can I do something? Actually, never mind, because I'm going to do it anyway." Libby walked over to Bryce…

She hit him with a fury I have never seen inside of Libby. Josh propped him back up and Libby hit him again, over and over and over again, until his nose was bleeding. Bryce looked at her and screamed in outrage.

"You bitch!"

"You know from you, I'll take that as a compliment." That was probably a smart move on Libby's behalf.

"I can't believe I ever dated you." That drew my thoughts back to that time, not very long ago at all when all we were concerned about was Bryce trying to take advantage of Libby on one of their dates. "If Lia hadn't already decided to spit on you, I'd be taking that pleasure." Lia had spit on him, way to go sister!

I just sounded so incredibly camp then.

But I prefer that then completely depressed which was what I was very close to being. I just couldn't believe that Eve was dead, that I would never get to school to be told that Eve was in the library and wouldn't come out… in her defence that only happened like three, four, maybe five times. I would never get to visit my cousins and watch Trina baby Eve, much to her extreme discomfort.

Once again I tried to hold in the tears, Lia was crying enough for everybody at the moment. But it was so damn difficult. I wanted to make Bryce bleed some more as well, but I knew he really wasn't worth it.

Holy crap, I just killed someone.

I don't know where that came from but it had just hit me. I had killed a man in cold blood. He was never going to breathe again, ever. And although that was a good thing I am a murderer.

Does that make me a bad person? No, I'm not going to let myself think like that, I did what had to be done. And I couldn't regret it for a second.

I looked around the group, Eve may be dead but Lia, Carter, Josh and Libby were only still alive because of what I did. And Amber was finally safe.

Amber! I scammed my eyes around the room, but she was nowhere to be seen.

"_Amber" _I called out and Josh went through the same thought process as me. But you see, his screams echoed across the room.

_**Dun, dun, dun. You thought the story was almost over didn't you? Well I tricked you. Two more drama packed chapters and then an epilogue.**_

_**So do I really have to remind you to REVIEW!**_

_**The Name Is A Lie, As Is The Cake**_

_**:)**_


	21. Chapter 21

_I'm scared I'm going to die. But I have to be strong._

_**Josh's POV**_

Amber… Oh my God Amber.

For one thing, I can't believe I left it so long to stop Bryce. It's one thing just keeping up appearances, but if I didn't wait then maybe Eve would be alive. It was another mistake. And when I finally tackled one of my demons in the form of my brother my father shot her.

And now, exactly when everything seemed to be absolutely perfect it takes a shout from Meg to tell me that my girlfriend is not in the room. Wait, did I just call Amber my girlfriend? Please, don't read too much into that, I mean you know I love her and I'm not taking that back, but we're not technically dating until she tells me so. Man, I'm not even dating anybody and I'm already whipped. Okay, this is not the things I should be thinking about at the moment; it really isn't so why on Earth am I thinking it anyway. Oh wait, because I'm still a teenage boy (at least I really hope so) and I can't really control what I think about as much as I would really want to.

It was just a perfect thing to burst my bubble and get me all depressed. Just when I thought it was all over, turns out it's not. It seems to be a bit of a recurring theme here. But I guess it should be me that has to pay for all of this, it is my entire fault.

But why make Amber pay for it. The weight of my mistakes should be on my own shoulders, not somebody else's. If only I had told Beck and Jade about my Dad in the first place, then none of it would have happened at all.

"Amber!" I called out as loud as I possibly could, hoping that maybe… just maybe she was hiding somewhere in the room. Okay, could I please stop being a complete idiot today? No, because that really seems to be a recurring theme for me.

"Amber! Amber, this is not funny!" I screamed again and I glared at the looks I was getting. What really drove me nuts was Bryce beginning to maniacally laugh.

"And you! You already have a bloody nose; do you really want an eye to match?" I snarled at him and he shut up. It was an interesting feeling to be able to scare my older brother. Normally he was the one who was scaring me, with how insane he was, normally I was worried that he was going to snap, but today I had a feeling I might just do that.

I might just snap and kill someone.

I stared down at my gun, I was kind of scaring myself at the moment.

"Amber!" Where on Earth could she possibly be? My eyes scanned the room on more time and suddenly I located another missing person.

"Shit!" I screamed one more time. "Alex! Get down here. This is over; there is no way you are getting out of this free. But you don't have to join Parker in leaving it in a body bag. Just bring her back and we can talk. Otherwise the first chance I get I am putting a bullet into your head."

I heard Beck's voice calling out behind me.

"And if he doesn't I promise you that I will." I had almost completely forgotten about Beck will that hole in his leg. I felt bad for him. He now had to tell Trina her daughter was dead, and he had to watch it. It wasn't the first death he'd seen at the hands of Parker. He had been through more than the rest of us put together.

Suddenly Alex appeared on a balcony that conveniently none of us had ever noticed before, or rather inconveniently. As most of us had figured out my now, he had Amber in his arms and we could hear the shrieking that he had been blocking until now.

"Really?" He asked me with a smirk on his face that I was just itching to wipe off. "Because I think if I take her there is no way that you two will aim a bullet at my head. You'd be far too scared about hitting her."

He was right, and he knew it. As long as he had Amber with him Beck or I wouldn't do a thing to stop him. But I wasn't going to let Amber go that easily. My eyes darted each way, and eventually they landed on the door that he had used to escape through.

"No, no, no, Josh. Don't even think about it." He said pressing his gun against Amber's neck, just too specifically torment us. And as much as I hated to say it, it was working very well. I wanted to snap his body like a twig at the moment, and as scary as it was, I think I'd enjoy it.

I fired a warning shot off, just to give him a scare but it didn't faze him in the slightest. In fact, he just laughed and clutched Amber a little bit closer. Oh, how I wanted to hurt him.

"Dude, what about me?" I heard Bryce say from where he was lying behind me. I gave him a look, warning him not to do anything, but at the same time daring him to, just so I could legitimately hit him again.

"You shut up." Beck silenced him, carrying an enormous amount of power in his voice despite the fact he was lying on the ground bleeding half to death, although we were pretty certain that the wound wouldn't kill, although that didn't mean it wouldn't seriously affect his walking abilities.

"Yes Bryce, you shut up." Alex snarled from his vantage point above the rest of us. "I am through listening to you; it's partly your stupidity that got us into this mess, so I am not helping you out of it." Alex had blindly been following orders, but now it was fairly obvious he was a lot smarter than he had appeared to be in the first place. He was sick of being second to the boss's sons and he was going to take satisfaction in being the only one to get away from the scene of the crime. Well, except for all those guards who seemed to have scarpered the moment that Parker went down.

Yeah, and Alex being determined was really not a good thing.

"You had your chance, now I'm going to get the glory… and the freedom of not having to go to _jail…" _he spat the last word out like it was a curse. "and last but not least I'm going to get the girl." He pressed the gun a little bit closer to Amber's neck and silence reigned for a couple seconds before I desperately called out Amber's name one more time.

"You know what I think I might enjoy the most about her. It's knowing how much you're going to hate me and how the thought of me with her is going to torture you. How much you would have given for you to be her first instead of me?" Amber's face went completely pale as she realised this wasn't just an empty threat. He wasn't kidding.

"I am going to be your first aren't I?" He stared at Amber and furiously she shook her head. "Oh, a bit of a _slut,_ are we?"

"No, you are not going to be my first, because you are not going to be my anything." I could just about hear Amber hiss and I was proud of her then. She was going to stay strong until the last moment.

"We'll see about that shall we?" Alex said, deliberately loud enough for me and Beck to be able to hear every single word of his end of the conversation. "You know what; I like a feisty girl… I'm going to really enjoy you." He fingers attached themselves onto her dress, as hard as tried to fight him off, but she was still conscious of his gun at her neck.

"Maybe we should start now, give them something to stare about." If he undressed her in front of us, I knew I would kill him. I would spend my entire life on it if I needed to, but I would murder that sick bastard. I had never felt as much rage inside of me as I was feeling at this moment, not even to my own father who had just killed someone. And I knew that was bad, but that were the girl I loved and nobody, and I mean nobody was allowed to touch her.

There was a ripping noise and I heard Amber give a massive, ear-piercing scream that drove shivers down my spine.

"Baby, screaming ain't going to help you now." Alex said and in a moment he was kissing Amber, while she tried desperately to do something to get him off. My fingers stretched for my gun, but I knew I couldn't shoot; I wasn't a good enough shot not to hit Amber.

But if nothing else happened soon then I might just do it anyway. As cruel as it sounded I would rather she die quickly by my hand, than after being tortured by the bastard up there, and killed in some gruesome way to scar us permanently when we found her body. I knew what that would do to me though and in some ways I was being incredibly selfish by not pulling that trigger.

_**One more chappie (plus epilogue)… I may have miscounted on the number of chapters, but never mind. And I have realised I've been a little unfair to Libby in this story, which I'm really sorry about because I love the character of Libby so much, but she does get the epilogue all to herself if that's any redemption.**_

_**And if you don't review then I'll never post the final chapter.**_

_**Maniacal laugh, maniacal laugh, maniacal laugh**_

_**(I've just seen the Muppets… if you haven't seen the Muppets, never mind it's just me being weird.)**_

_**The Name Is A Lie, As Is The Cake**_

_**:)**_

_**Oh and yeah. I am asking you to check out The Reaper Takes It All... again!**_


	22. Chapter 22

_I have to believe that I will live to see the light at the end of the tunnel._

_**Amber's POV**_

Bile rose up in my throat as I desperately tried to get the slobbering bastard off me. I kicked and shoved but the blubbering idiot wouldn't budge.

I could hear Josh screaming downstairs and I had to wonder if it was all over for me, if I was going to die this way, being used by Alex until he got bored and decided to get rid of me. I heard a bullet fire and I resolved to either get out of Alex's way, or to get into the path of a bullet.

I would rather die like that.

Right now I was envying the way that Eve died… although it did kill me to know that Eve was dead because of me. That made me a murderer. I had murdered some of my best friend's cousins and a girl that never, ever did anything in the slightest to deserve this. She just happened to be simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

But as much as it hurt, if I was already a murderer I had nothing to lose. Even death didn't faze me anymore, anything was better than my alternative.

As Alex attempted to slip his tongue into my mouth I increased my methods to fight back and shoved him off repeatedly, ignoring the gun at my neck. I drove my knee between his legs and managed to kick him where the sun doesn't shine. Yeah, you probably know which place I'm referring to now. Alex forgot about his weapon as he staggered away from me in pain.

It was a very nice feeling, watching him hurting.

"You bitch! I'm going to kill you!" Wait to go Amber… I was going to die; I was officially going to die. But I didn't actually care now. I could hit that floor with a thud and break my neck. It didn't matter anymore.

"Go Amber!" I heard a voice that I think was Libby's come from down below, but she was quickly hushed by Josh.

"Shut up! I'm trying to get a good aim." He was going to shoot, but you know what, I wanted to do this myself. Nobody else was going to do anything for me, especially not to do something that could get them hurt.

I wasn't sure how I felt about Josh either. He has been such an ass but it didn't quite seem like that could be all. He had gone to stop Bryce, he had almost cried over Eve. I was thinking that maybe I shouldn't be so quick to judge, and maybe I shouldn't just judge by appearances. Josh hadn't actually done anything. He hadn't shot anybody, he hadn't been cruel and he had asked them repeatedly not to hurt me. I was thinking that Josh could have just been playing a game, that he was about to lose.

I knew that I had forgiven him for whatever he had done wrong. But as Alex swung for me I ducked under his arm, and I just couldn't resist sticking my tongue out at him. In an impulse I swung my legs at him and saw them collapse underneath, I was amazed I had managed to bring down a fully grown man. He began to topple and slowly but surely and the railings began to shatter. He reached for his gun, and frantically shot it, trying to hit me not that it would stop his fall.

It was almost slow motion as he fell, screaming at him the floor with a thud. He probably wasn't dead, just heavily injured but the bullets he had fired in his distress hit the chandelier and the whole room began to shake.

"Get out!" I screamed "The ceilings going to collapse." Meg and Libby ran for the stairs up to the balcony and soon joined me up there. Josh soon joined me, pulling Bryce along.

"Go, get out." Josh screamed and my friends disappeared down the door. I could see Dad limping up the stairs to get out and then she was gone. There were big cracks appearing on the ceiling and as cliché as it sounded, I thought it was going to collapse and crush all of us.

"Eve!" Lia screamed and I remembered the girl lying on the ground, no longer breathing. I gestured for Josh to take Bryce out and reluctantly he left to safety as well, knowing that he couldn't let his brother get away. I dashed down the stairs to reach Eve, even if she wasn't alive anymore there was no way that we could just leave her.

As bigger cracks began to appear, it reminded me just how old this house actually was. It seemed ancient. A large piece of the roof fell down and hit the floor. I helped Lia and Carter hold Eve as we just managed to get up the winding stairs to the balcony that only barely seemed to support our weight. It was funny how shooting a chandelier could ruin it all. As my last two friends finally managed to get out of the mansion I remembered the man, lying down there not actually dead. The worst Alex had was probably a couple broken bones…

And there might just be a way to get him out of there, I could be selfless and save a life or I could leave that sick little bastard to die where he belongs.

I could be selfless and brave and save a life despite the fact he didn't deserve it. Or I could be selfish and leave him to rot.

I am selfish.

In fact, I am so selfish that I stuck my tongue out at him and watched him snarl.

"I AM GOING TO KILL YOU!" He screamed out in pain.

"I don't know how you're going to manage to do that from Hell." I screamed back and then I disappeared to see the rest of my friends and I watched the last of the roof fall through as I left.

As I left Meg and Libby were managing to restrain Bryce… which is something I didn't expect, but then again in the space of today along, I think both of them had hit him in anger. I wasn't sure though, I wasn't exactly aware of everything that had happened that day.

Carter was comforting Lia and I had to say they made a very sweet couple.

Josh turned to look at me.

"Is everything okay?" He asked me, a soft tone in his voice that I appreciated. A tear dripped down my cheek and I realised that I had left someone to die.

It wasn't like Meg when there was no choice, when it was just to kill or be killed. It was that I had a choice whether they lived or died and I chose for them to die. Maybe that made me evil, or maybe that made me human.

"No…" I shook my head in response to Josh's question. Everything was not okay; in fact I think this was the worst day of my life. But I could hear Dad calling the police and I knew they would be here soon. Parker was dead… Alex was dead and Bryce would soon be behind bars, never to get out again, they couldn't be that stupid twice and Bryce would dare after seeing what had happened when his father tried it.

"But it will be." I forced a smile onto my face despite the tears that were dripping down my face, just like on everybody else's.

And then I collapsed into Josh's arms.

This thing of darkness was finally giving way to the bright new dawn…

* * *

><p><em><strong>Before I forget CHECK OUT GOTHIC GUITAR'S FIANCES NEW OC STORY! (Please... otherwise Parker, Alex or Bryce will hunt you down and kill you... oh wait two of them are already dead. Okay, just Bryce then)<strong>_

_**Well that's the end of TTOD… you get an epilogue and that's it. Sorry…**_

_**But wow! I'm almost done! Please review. Plus, you've probably figured out by now the italics are Amber's POV of when she was kidnapped and there's one more line but I was wondering if you wanted me to put them all in one place for you to see?**_

_**The Name Is A Lie, As Is The Cake**_

_**:)**_

_**(Oh and Livvy... there are Starbucks in Europe! I should know, I live there... or well, depends where you are anyway. I can't exactly tlk for France but in the UK there are plenty. But go to Costa instead, chances are there's one closer plus they're just generally better. And I know what you mean about the free wifi... its almost non-existant, but don't feel bad about not reviewing I won't decide to kill off your character or anything... actually... kidding! I can't anyway, I'm pretty much done. And sorry for the really long note specifically to you, I didn't know where else to put it.)**_


	23. Epilogue

_And in the end, nobody on this earth is going to save me unless I try to save myself._

_**Libby's POV**_

"It took one day for our lives to be thrown into such disrepair that we were worried we'd never be able to make our way back out of it. It took months for us to come even close.

Eve's funeral was hard and there wasn't a dry eye in the house. Lia was in hysterics throughout the entire thing, and everybody knew she blamed herself. Carter was glued to her side the entire time. We all knew that they would be together for a while… maybe even forever. It was a sweet sight, but nobody could possibly enjoy it as we watched Eve's body motionless in the coffin. She looked peaceful in death and although it was a terrible thought, we all knew that this was her choice and that she was in a better place now.

We were slowly moving on and accepting that rather than trying to pull her back.

It was devastating but it was the truth. Junior Year may have ended on a low but by the end of Senior Year we were ready. We would never forget her but we all decided that we would celebrate her life rather than to be miserable over her death as hard as it was.

We moved on and lived our lives, as our families did before. We were strong as them and we were completely willing to prove it.

Bryce was in jail and he wasn't going to hurt anybody, we had made sure of that, he was a despicable, horrible man and he deserved to pay. Our kids weren't going to have to go through the same things that we had to but I guess you already knew that, didn't you. In fact our close call made us even stronger. I mean, Lia's first album was completely based on it, and it was a complete best seller.

Not to mention that Amber based most of her bestselling series on it as well.

So this thing hadn't ruined out lives, even if it did seem that it had for a little bit. We moved on although we would forget what we had been through. We've all had fantastic lives, and we've been happy.

In fact, without this whole disaster maybe Carter and Lia wouldn't have even got together, or perhaps Josh and Amber would have never happened. And then I wouldn't be a godmother… or an aunt, and that would be such a tragedy. And I don't really care if Meg claims that she should have been the godmother, because she saved their lives. I don't care, I got there first and I discovered Ambosh before anybody else. You, know I wanted Jamber, but _apparently _that was already taken."

I heard a chuckle come from one of the teenagers around me. I searched the ground for it and my eyes settles on the pair of coffee haired, brown eyed twins, giving each other glances, and looks about how very crazy I am. I couldn't really disagree at points, but really! Respect your elders please… I mean kids these days. But then again, they had held their silence for about half an hour now so it was surprising they hadn't interrupted before, especially that little she-devil in the corner with the sharp blue eyes and the brown hair of her grandmother. I still cannot believe they didn't name her after me! Uh, it was the absolute ultimate insult, but then she gave her my name as a middle name, so that was cool. But then again this story did basically relate to her parents quite a lot, and if anybody was going to be in the most trouble because of a repeat of this scenario, I guess it would arguably be her.

"So you can't call this all bad, because out of every little bit of suffering comes some good. And there are moments in there that almost make it all worth it. And we don't know why we're telling you all this, maybe it's because this thing has been eating away at us for years. Or maybe it's simply because you asked... I have no idea."

My old friends and I exchanged glances as I stopped. We had done it, we had told the story and it was over. It was finally over, we had told someone, start to finish and all these things we'd been holding had just fizzled out and disappeared.

Our kids kind of sat there completely shell shocked. Then slowly, without a word we all stood up and left the house, we had done what we came for and now it was finally time to go home, sleep, and talk about this in the morning.

_**That's it! I'm done!**_

_**YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY…**_

_**Yay.**_

_**Okay… I know that was short but it was the epilogue it's kind of fine. I hope you liked the hints at the kids there as well, hope you got whose kids they were.**_

_**And okay… a questionnaire to help me improve my writing. And AwkardAusTurtle... or whatever your name is now. That includes you... please!**_

_**Fav character:**_

_**Fav moment:**_

_**Fav couple:**_

_**Fav line:**_

_**Fav death (the one you think was pulled of best, not the one you were happiest about):**_

_**And sorry, they're will be no third generation. I've got to move on eventually… but there is this thing I'm thinking about which you could possibly submit OCs for… I don't know. I know I don't want to put it down as an actual OC Contest but I was thinking about giving my readers an option… basically I have a story being planned and I have three OCs in it, all of which I had a bit about their personalities planned… but maybe you could do some stuff if you want, as like a reward for being a faithful reviewer? You tell me.**_

_**But yeah, insanely long AN but this is my last chapter, I'm entitled to do that… But give me a review will you? (I know it's hard for you Livvy, but try.) This is pretty much your last chance.**_

_**The Name Is A Lie, As Is The Cake**_

_**:)**_


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